The recent increase in hospitals that provide Chinese medicine treatments has prompted the Department of Health to launch a new evaluation system to assess them, a health official said yesterday.
Huang Lin-huang (黃林煌), chairman of the department’s Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy, said the number of traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and hospital-affiliated clinics has increased from between 20 and 30 a decade ago to 96 today, which means there is now a greater need for a more holistic and higher quality evaluation program.
TEACHING HOSPITALS
The evaluations will take place between this month and May, Huang said and the “results will serve as a criteria for hospitals that want to become teaching hospitals.”
Hospitals with high scores would have more opportunities to participate in government--related projects, he said.
The evaluation will rate each hospital’s patient safety practices, quality of care, hospital management, environment and service quality, and human resources.
At present, 45 Chinese medicine hospitals have signed up for the evaluation program.
OPTING OUT
Half of the hospitals have not applied. Huang said this was either because these hospitals did not meet qualifications or they did not submit all the required documents. As a result, these hospitals will be excluded from consideration for teaching hospital status.
Huang said that National Yang-ming University Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Taiwan, did not have enough physicians in its division of Chinese medicine to apply for the evaluation.
To qualify, a hospital must have a team of at least four doctors in Chinese medicine.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
PROMOTION: Travelers who want a free stopover must book their flights with designated travel agents, such as Lion Travel, Holiday Tours, Cola Tour and Life Tours Air Canada yesterday said it is offering Taiwanese travelers who are headed to North America free stopovers if they transit though airports in Japan and South Korea. The promotion was launched in response to a potential rise in demand for flights to North America in June and July next year, when the US, Canada and Mexico are scheduled to jointly host the FIFA World Cup, Air Canada said. Air Canada offers services to 13 of the 16 host cities of the tournament’s soccer games, including Toronto and Vancouver; Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico; Atlanta, Georgia; Boston; Dallas; Houston;
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