The Department of Health (DOH) has hammered out a timetable to develop a system for transcribing medical records in Chinese, with reference formats of various medical records to be published in Chinese by March, a department official said.
In response to requests from various sectors, the DOH recently set up an interministerial task force to push for making medical records available in Chinese, said the official, who declined to be named.
The task force will launch a trial program for making 13 types of documents available in Chinese in hospitals and health centers later this year.
These documents will include medical record summaries, medical treatment plans, certificates of diagnosis, death certificates, surgical explanations and surgical consent forms, anesthesia consent forms, medicine bags, physical examination reports, educational materials regarding health, diet and disease, medical test reports and patient transfer sheets, the official said.
Based on the DOH timetable, hospitals will be asked this month to start using Chinese for medical records and then issue reference formats for medical record summaries, medical test reports and patient transfer sheets in Chinese by June.
The trial program for promoting medical records in Chinese will be concluded by December, with the results to be factored into the performance evaluation of hospitals by the DOH.
The agency also plans to make available standardized translations of medical terms by the end of next year. Before the Chinese version of medical terminologies is officially published, the DOH will direct health agencies at the local level to ask hospitals, clinics and other medical institutions under their supervision to write medical records in Chinese using the English-Chinese glossary of medical terminologies adopted by the Bureau of National Health Insurance, the official said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) said on Sunday that requiring doctors to record patients' medical records in Chinese could strengthen communication between physicians and patients and reduce medical disputes.
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