Beijing Allows Cross-Hospital Recognition of 481 Test and Examination Results
　　Including 181 medical test results and 300 medical imaging examination results

　　Recently, four departments including the Beijing Municipal Health Commission and the Beijing Municipal Medical Insurance Bureau jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Mutual Recognition of Examination and Test Results of Medical Institutions in Beijing" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). The city will implement mutual recognition for 181 medical test results and 300 medical imaging examination results. The "Plan" stipulates that, for existing examination and test results provided by patients that meet the conditions for mutual recognition and satisfy diagnostic and treatment needs, medical institutions and their medical personnel shall not repeat the examinations and tests. Medical institutions shall, on the premise of not affecting disease diagnosis and treatment, recognize as much as possible examination and test results bearing the mutual recognition mark for regions including this city. The mutual recognition items will be dynamically adjusted in due course in line with the development of medical care and informatization.

　　The "Plan" Clarifies Relevant Mutual Recognition Rules

　　It is understood that the examination results referred to in the "Plan" mean the image or data information obtained by examining the human body through means such as ultrasound, X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and nuclear medicine; the test results referred to mean the data information obtained by testing materials from the human body in biology, microbiology, immunology, chemistry, blood immunology, hematology, biophysics, cytology, and other fields. Examination and test results do not include diagnostic conclusions issued by physicians. Medical institutions shall carry out the mutual recognition of examination and test results in accordance with the principles of "taking the guarantee of quality and safety as the bottom line, taking quality control qualification as the premise, taking the reduction of patients' burden as the orientation, taking the satisfaction of diagnostic and treatment needs as the foundation, and taking the judgment of the attending physician as the standard."

　　According to the mutual recognition rules given in the "Plan", examination and test items that meet Beijing's quality evaluation indicators and have passed the quality evaluation of the Beijing Center for Quality Control and Improvement of Medical Laboratory Testing, the Beijing Clinical Laboratory Center, and the Beijing Center for Quality Control and Improvement of Medical Imaging shall be recognized throughout the city. For secondary and lower-level medical institutions in this city, those whose quality evaluation work has been completed by district-level quality control centers in accordance with municipal-level quality evaluation standards may be included in the citywide mutual recognition scope. For traditional Chinese medicine institutions, the quality evaluation work shall be completed by the relevant professional quality control centers of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (for secondary and lower-level traditional Chinese medicine institutions, the district-level quality control centers shall be responsible for completing the quality evaluation work). Examination and test items that meet regional (such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) quality evaluation indicators and have passed the quality evaluation of the corresponding professional quality control centers in the relevant regions shall be recognized within the relevant regions.

　　Medical Institutions Should Ensure the Image Quality of Imaging Examinations

　　Regarding the specific mutual recognition items, the "Plan" clarifies that there are 181 medical test result mutual recognition items in total. Examination and test items participating in mutual recognition should have relatively good stability and unified technical standards, and be convenient for carrying out quality evaluation.

　　There are 300 medical imaging examination mutual recognition items in total. The medical imaging examination materials participating in mutual recognition shall be standardized in examination, correct in position, complete in sequence, clear in image, reliable in quality, and meet diagnostic requirements (with timeliness), and the patient's basic information and examination date shall be accurate. They shall include the lossless DICOM-format images and post-processed images generated by the medical institution's imaging examination and required for diagnosis and treatment, as well as the reports signed and issued by radiologists. All images generated by X-ray plain films, gastrointestinal examinations, and mammography shall be uploaded; for imaging examination materials generated by CT, thick-slice and thin-slice images shall be uploaded, and in addition to the original images, the corresponding post-processed images shall also be uploaded; for imaging examination materials generated by MR, all sequence images generated during the examination shall be uploaded, and for sequences such as angiography and functional imaging, in addition to the original images, the corresponding post-processed images shall also be uploaded. Medical institutions shall ensure the image quality of the imaging examinations provided, and shall avoid uploading data of no value for clinical medical use, so as to reduce redundant and invalid data and save storage space. The mutual recognition items will be dynamically adjusted in due course with the development of medical care and informatization.

　　Mutual Recognition of Medical Imaging Examination Results Within Medical Consortiums

　　Regarding mutual recognition institutions, the "Plan" clarifies that medical institutions whose medical test items are mutually recognized need to pass national and provincial inter-laboratory quality assessments. Medical imaging examination results shall be mutually recognized between secondary B-level and lower medical institutions, and between secondary A-level and higher medical institutions. Secondary B-level and lower medical institutions shall recognize the medical imaging examination results of secondary A-level and higher medical institutions. Medical imaging examination results of all medical institutions within a medical consortium shall be mutually recognized. If the medical imaging examination results of secondary and lower-level medical institutions meet the quality requirements for diagnostic results, tertiary hospitals may also recognize them.

　　Regarding the mutual recognition mark, the "Plan" clarifies that the unified mark for mutual recognition of examination and test results of medical institutions is "HR". For examination and test items that have participated in the quality evaluation organized by the corresponding professional municipal quality control organizations and passed, medical institutions shall mark the corresponding mutual recognition scope + mutual recognition mark, such as "Beijing HR", "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei HR", etc. Where English marks are required, the English initials of the mutual recognition scope + the mutual recognition mark shall be used, such as "BJHR" for Beijing mutual recognition and "JJJHR" for Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional mutual recognition. If the same item meets multiple mutual recognition scopes, it shall be marked with the name of the largest scope. Examination and test items that have not participated in the quality evaluation as required or have failed the quality evaluation shall not be marked.

　　For existing examination and test results provided by patients that meet the conditions for mutual recognition and satisfy diagnostic and treatment needs, medical institutions and their medical personnel shall not repeat the examinations and tests. However, the "Plan" also clarifies that in 11 circumstances medical institutions and their medical personnel may re-examine the relevant items, such as when, due to changes in the patient's condition, the existing examination and test results are difficult to reflect the patient's current actual condition; when the examination and test results are highly correlated with disease development and change greatly or rapidly; when the examination and test items are of great significance for disease diagnosis and treatment (such as before major medical measures such as surgery and blood transfusion); when there is doubt about the existing examination and test results; when medical imaging examinations whose image quality and methods cannot meet diagnostic requirements; when the patient is in an emergency state such as emergency treatment or first aid, etc.