November 22, 2018 | UHCL Staff
University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Department of Healthcare Administration’s prime location at the Texas Medical Center made it the optimal setting for a visit last summer from Chinese healthcare executives seeking an opportunity to learn more about the American health care system to help improve their own. It was such a successful visit that with the help of Wei Wu, executive director of the U.S.-China Center for Medical Exchange, another group of 20 Chinese oncologists plans to arrive in November, said Faculty Chair and Lecturer Raymond Khoury, who also serves as executive-in-residence for the Healthcare Administration department.
“Our classes are in the Medical Center, which is the largest center of health care delivery and research in the world,” Khoury said. “With the help of interpreters, the Chinese healthcare executives attended some of my lectures and we discussed aspects of our health care system. They had many questions about financing and management. They also wished to learn about clinical things in the hospitals and observe how we conduct patient care.”
The Center for Executive Education for the College of Business at UH-Clear Lake serves as the link between the university, local businesses, and the community and offers numerous outreach programs. “We are developing several healthcare programs in the Texas Medical Center area and beyond,” said Jo Anne Laborde, business development officer for CEE. “With the help of our healthcare administration faculty, we make programs available to the healthcare community. When Dr. Wu contacted us, we saw it as another creative way to use CEE to reach out.”
The U.S.-China Center for Medical Exchange’s mission is to foster exchange and cooperation between the U.S. and China in the areas of medicine and health care. Wu searched for an educational institution in Houston that could provide the opportunity for Chinese health care executives to come to the U.S. to learn more about the health care system. She found an article about University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Center for Executive Education and the Healthcare Administration/Business Administration degree. That led her to contact Laborde. “The Center works closely with healthcare entities to provide programs to healthcare practitioners with the goal of improving their leadership and management skills for the business of healthcare,” Laborde said.
“UH-Clear Lake has very good programs. That’s why this summer we brought doctors from China to visit the Texas Medical Center and come to Prof. Khoury’s lecture about health care administration,” said Wu. “Their objective is to come to the U.S. and to learn how the American healthcare system works.”
Wu explained that with China’s large aging population, there are increasing needs for the country’s health care system to make changes to improve its care. “In 2015, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong visited the Texas Medical Center and thought very highly of it. She returned to China and asked health care leaders to visit the Texas Medical Center to learn its unique characteristics”
“Chinese doctors have been visiting American and European hospitals for years learning about management,” Wu said. “The American and European health care systems are considered more advanced in terms of medical outcomes. The hope is to learn more management skills and find ways to improve the Chinese healthcare system.”
There are many differences between the systems, beginning with how doctors are trained. “In China, a student will go to medical school after high school ,” Wu said. “Their residency program is relatively new. The government provides healthcare to everyone, and the best hospitals are owned by the government. Doctors do not prefer working in private practice. Most work in hospitals.”
She added that unlike the U.S., China has recently begun to develop the primary care specialty. Doctors all have a specialty, she said, and patients generally go to the hospital even if they just have a cold.
Chinese doctors, Wu continued, can spend only a few minutes per patient, as they often treat up to 80 patients a day. “Traditionally, patients don’t make appointments to see a doctor in China. They go to the hospital and line up,” she said. “If you are too sick to wait in a line, you get a family member to take your number and wait for you. When it’s your time, you come in.”
As a result of their first visit to the Texas Medical Center, Wu said, the Chinese doctors learned more about the culture of patient care. “Hospitals in the U.S. look like hotels and they try to reduce that ‘hospital feeling.’ They also offer spiritual care and care more for the total person, not just the disease. Doctors have made many comments about this. And they have new ideas about hospital management from Prof. Khoury,” she said. “Chinese hospital executives appreciate the opportunity to learn from Prof. Khoury since he has real experience as CEO of hospitals.”
Wu said many Chinese patients come to the Texas Medical Center for treatment. “That is also why many Chinese healthcare leaders come to Houston,” she said. “But American healthcare leaders don’t know much about the Chinese healthcare system. That’s why I encourage American doctors should go to China to learn more about the system there as well, because there is a lot of efficiency in the system due to the large population, and costs are low. There is benefit for both sides,” she said.
For more information about UHCL’s Center for Executive Education, visit www.uhcl.edu/center-executive-education. For more information about UHCL’s master’s in healthcare administration, visit www.uhcl.edu/academics/degrees/healthcare-administration-mha.
