Private doctor program launched at Eden Hospital to help customers stay healthy

Catering to an ever increasing health demands of the well-off residents in the capital of Beijing, the Beijing Eden Hospital has launched a high-end family high-end doctor program highlighting the idea of disease prevention and health preservation.

The family doctor is a medical specialist who plans and provides the comprehensive primary health care of an individual, on a continuous basis. It helps handle diseases, and more importantly, helps people stay healthy.

Starting at the end of May, the yearly membership program began contracting members, both Chinese and foreigners speaking English according to Sun Mingxiao, chief medical officer of the hospital located in southern Beijing.

Each of the customers would have free medical check-ups annually and the results would help guide and determine the specifics of the service delivery in the program, according to Sun.

Currently, people in major Chinese cities like Beijing have easy access into health examinations but targeted follow-up intervention services aimed to help address detected to health conditions detected and potential health risk factors are rare, previous reports said.

"The program at Eden fills the market blank and aims to help people stay healthy instead of simply medical treatment," Sun noted.

In addition to the free check-ups, the customer, under the program, can visit his or her exclusive family doctor any time during the office hour, free of charge.

After hospital work time, a call center is open for them 24 hour, also free.

When necessary, program members are referred by the family doctor to specialists at the hospital, for further treatment, at discounted price.

As the deputy director of the endocrinology department of the Beijing Hospital, one of the top public hospitals nationwide, Sun, also has a background in nutrition and geriatric medicine used to be responsible for the elderly care services at the hospital. Unlike other regular senior patients, the program she led then served retired government officials of at least ministerial and provincial-level.

According to her, the average age of the her patients back then was 96 years old, largely thanks to "a unique and independent health management system exclusively among the high-ranking officials."

To bring such health services to others, Sun moved to Eden and launched the family doctor program.

Guo Lina, chief operation officer of Eden said the program featured a team work among a group of medics of family medicine, nutrition, mental health, elderly care, chronic diseases, and sports medicine.

"The health intervention and management plan is designed individually for each customer based on their physical condition, lifestyle and diet, health examination check-up results, and medical history," she added.

The annual program now costs 6,000 yuan ($882).