At present, as population aging accelerates, how to break the physical boundaries between medical care and elderly care, enabling seniors to enjoy professional medical resources in their familiar community environments, has become the core proposition in building an "age-friendly society." To fully implement the deployment requirements of the Qingdao Three-Year Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of “China Kangwan” (2025–2027), align with the development goal of building A Famous Mountain-Sea Health & Wellness City and A Dynamic Health Bay Area, and focus on breaking down coordination barriers between medical and elderly care services, promoting the deep integration of medical, rehabilitation and elderly care resources, optimizing the supply system of health services for the elderly, and precisely meeting the multi-level and full lifecycle health and elderly care service needs of the senior population in Shibei District, under the deployment and guidance of the Shibei District Health Bureau, the Shibei District Qilu Hospital of Shandong University (Qingdao) Medical and Health Group and Taikang Community recently held a signing ceremony for their cooperation on the Demonstration Project of Integrated Medical, Rehabilitation and Elderly Care in Shandong Province. Corresponding leaders from the Qingdao Municipal Health Commission, Qingdao Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, and the People's Government of Shibei District, Qingdao City, along with relevant principals of Taikang Community attended the ceremony.
At the meeting, the Shibei District Qilu Hospital of Shandong University (Qingdao) Medical and Health Group, Shibei District People's Hospital (Shibei District Geriatric Hospital), and Qingdao Taikang Home Haiqin Elderly Care Service Co., Ltd. officially signed the Cooperation Agreement on Building a Demonstration Project of Integrated Medical, Rehabilitation and Elderly Care in Shandong Province. This signing marks a substantial step forward for the district in solving the dilemma of the "separation of medical care and elderly care." Through the integration of resources and highly efficient collaboration among the three parties, they are sparing no effort to explore a "Shibei Model" representing the "integration of medical, rehabilitation and elderly care." As a key move to implement Qingdao's three-year action plan for building "China Health & Wellness Bay," this cooperation also serves as another innovative breakthrough for our district—functioning as one of the province's first demonstrative areas for county-wide elderly care service system innovation, a demonstration area for home- and community-based elderly care service network development, and one of the province's first pilot districts for the "Five-Bed Linkage" elderly care service model—in actively responding to population aging and constructing a full lifecycle health service system.
Relying on their geographical proximity and the advantages of complementary resources, the three parties will cooperatively construct an innovative operating mechanism based on an "Integrated Hospital-Elderly Care Institution Model." With the Shibei District Qilu Hospital of Shandong University (Qingdao) Medical and Health Group at its core, this mechanism uniformly coordinates and integrates the resources of Shibei District People's Hospital, Taikang Community’s elderly care facilities, and the eight major public community health service centers within its jurisdiction, thoroughly breaking down service barriers. By building a full-chain service system of "prevention, diagnosis & treatment, rehabilitation, nursing and elderly care," it achieves a highly efficient hierarchical medical system where "minor illnesses are treated in the clinic, while major illnesses are directly referred to the hospital." This ensures the continuity and stability of health services, truly achieving a seamless connection between "the elderly having access to medical care" and "the elderly being properly cared for."
In terms of specific service content, taking the core needs of seniors into account, a series of pragmatic measures have been launched: establishing a two-way referral green channel and a nighttime medical service hotline to achieve "three direct accesses" (outpatient, inpatient, and emergency departments) for critically and acutely ill patients residing in elderly care institutions; promoting the downward extension of high-quality medical resources through regular scheduled specialist on-site consultations and ward rounds, disease-specific screening, and group physical examinations; and optimizing pharmacy administration to set up a medication pick-up green channel for patients with chronic diseases. In addition, the three parties will explore a collaborative mechanism for long-term care insurance and radiate their service capabilities to surrounding communities to build a high-quality "15-minute silver-hair service circle."
This trilateral cooperation serves as an important breakthrough for Shibei District in deepening the reform on the integration of medical and elderly care and carrying out the national strategy for actively responding to population aging. By combining the strengths of a Grade-A tertiary hospital, district-level hospitals, and professional elderly care institutions, it will not only provide the local elderly population with high-quality, full-chain health and wellness services right "at their doorsteps," but will also effectively promote the implementation of the "China Health & Wellness Bay" strategy from a blueprint into a realistic vision. Supported by the construction of tightly-knit urban medical groups and utilizing the "Integrated Hospital-Elderly Care Institution Model" to clear the "last mile" in the integration of medical and elderly care, this project is a vivid practice illustrating the high-quality development of the silver economy. Moving forward, the various parties will continue extending their cooperation to jointly build a replicable and promotable exemplary model highlighting the deep integration of medical, rehabilitation and elderly care, thus injecting powerful momentum into Qingdao's construction of "China Health & Wellness Bay," and allowing more older people to share the developmental fruits of healthy elderly care and quality elderly care.
Editor: Yuan Ruichen
