Shanghai's Deltahealth Hospital Saves Emergent Patients Through Its Chest Pain “Green Channel”

Shanghai, China - During November 2022, Shanghai DeltaHealth Hospital was awarded as the designated service hospital for the 5th China International Import Expo. According to the requirements of CIIE Committee, DeltaHealth Hospital prepared a medical team consisting of all departments on standby day and night for the CIIE, and have launched drills to ensure the green channel runs smoothly whenever a patient is sent from the CIIE to the hospital.

As the medical facility close to the CIIE venue, featuring cardiac disease treatment and chest pain green channel, DeltaHealth has made profound preparation for heart emergencies like heart attacks and aortic dissection. Professor Fang Weiyi, vice president of Shanghai DeltaHealth Hospital, guided the implementation work directly and designed special wards and outpatient processes for CIIE-related patients. Medics with multiple language abilities are also available.

DeltaHealth CEO David Hoidal said becoming a designated hospital for CIIE is in line with its community responsibility. "Similar to our role with the CIIE, we also provided three great physicians to serve as medical volunteers at the Beijing Winter Olympics," he said. "In addition to serving at government-sponsored events, DeltaHealth organizes various community education events to raise public health awareness. We certainly do diagnosis and treatment. But I also feel part of our mission is preventative medicine, which keeps people out of the hospital." He emphasized on the importance of cardiac screening, which is reiterated in public awareness. “The risk of cardiovascular disease among women is also underestimated among public,” he said. Therefore, the early screening is very meaningful to women. Collaborated with Columbia HeartSource, DeltaHealth has hosted Women’s Cardiovascular Health Day to provide health education online since 2018. This year, this event was held on November 26.

"DeltaHealth has sent teams to remote parts of China to do free heart screenings. Since 2021, we sent our team to Xinjiang and screened about 3,000 kids with signs of congenital heart disease, among which 400 were screened out and would need surgery," Hoidal said. "I love to see these kids and families, because it doesn't just change the child's life. It changes the whole family's life. Some of these children can have the energy to go to school. It's truly heart-warming as it raises their hopes and dreams. It's one of the best things we do."

While contributing to charity programs and community service, DeltaHealth continues to expand its medical services. Apart from its cardiology and cardiac surgery, the hospital is expanding its service of oncology, chemotherapy, radio therapy (in progress) as well as a sleep monitoring center, an endoscopy center and routine health checkups. "DeltaHealth is building itself into a comprehensive hospital with prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up rehabilitation," said Professor Sun Lizhong, president of Shanghai DeltaHealth Hospital. 

Professor Sun Lizhong, who joined DeltaHealth from Beijing in 2016, is one of the national top cardiac surgeon. He invented the “Sun’s Procedure”, which becomes the standard procedure of Type A aortic dissection, a fatal cardiovascular disease. In nearly 40 years of clinical practices, he has independently completed and oversaw other surgeons doing more than 25,000 cardiac surgeries. 

“People who need cardiology, cardiac and oncology treatment are the three leading types of inpatients. For heart disease, most cases we handle are complicated and challenging. Moreover, we're performing the leading number of surgeries on aortic dissection with significantly high survival rate. On average, patients with such fatal conditions are able to receive operations within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital through a green channel, to fulfill all necessary checks and preparations."