Neuropsychiatric Health Centre: Journey of Digitalisation to a Smart Hospital in China Technology

Set in 2025, this case describes the digital transformation journey of Jiangling Neuropsychiatric (NBH), outlining its progress as well as the challenges faced.

JNH, one of China’s leading centres for psychiatric and neurological care, had a mandate that spanned clinical care, education, research, mental health evaluation, and public health. As both a treatment centre and a teaching hospital, it managed large volumes of complex cases that required long consultations, and meticulous inpatient oversight and medication management. Consequently, it faced substantial operational issues in managing outpatient flow, inpatient care, and supply chain. This was compounded by the increasing healthcare demands from China’s rapidly urbanising and ageing population.

To address these issues, JNH undertook the initiative to digitalise by converting patient records into electronics formats and streamlining select workflows. However, although the hospital had moved beyond a paper-based environment, significant fragmentation existed due to lack of interoperability among existing systems. This had created data silos, which hindered efforts for clinical efficiency, collaboration, and research.

John Lew, the head of hospital’s digital transformation, recognised the need to adopt more advanced and integrated digital solutions. However, doing so required greater longer-term investments, for which he needed to convince the hospital leadership about the value of digitalisation in order to win their support.

Students will gain practical insights into the complex healthcare industry; role of several functions such as administration, operations, logistics, and clinical services; and the core challenges its stakeholders face. They will assess JNH’s progress towards digital transformation by using several strategic frameworks and recommend an action plan for it to deliver healthcare services efficiently and effectively.

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