Using hospitals
Passport and real-name registration for internet hospitals
Prepare a foreign-passport profile, protect identity data, prevent duplicate records and use a provider-confirmed fallback when an app cannot verify you.
China's internet-diagnosis rules require real-name patient use, but that national safeguard does not mean every hospital app accepts a foreign passport, foreign mobile number, guardian account or English name format. Registration is an identity-and-record task: the patient needs one accurate profile linked to the accountable medical institution and to any prior diagnosis records used for follow-up review. This guide explains how to prepare a passport profile, verify a published foreign-document route, handle technical failure, protect sensitive data and avoid duplicate records. It does not guarantee account approval, platform compatibility, proxy authority, English, appointment, first-visit access, price, insurance, prescription, refund or clinical outcome.
Use this as a practical starting point
Provider procedures can change, so confirm time-sensitive details with the hospital, insurer or service. A licensed professional must make clinical decisions for an individual patient.
At a glance
Key points
- Real-name care is a national supervision requirement, while support for a particular foreign passport or phone number remains a platform and provider workflow question.
- Use the passport exactly as instructed by the accountable institution and never substitute another person's identity or invent a resident identity number.
- Ask whether the app profile, hospital patient number and internet-hospital medical record are linked before creating a second account.
- Official examples from Guangdong and Yantai show both route-specific passport support and route-specific platform limits; neither establishes nationwide or provider-wide access.
- A parent, guardian, family member or assistant does not automatically gain authority to register, consent, receive records or act as the patient.
- Medical and health information, and information about children under 14, is sensitive personal information that should be shared only through a verified and necessary route.
- When automated verification fails, preserve the error and request an official manual, telephone, desk or physical-institution fallback from the provider.
- Successful identity verification does not establish online follow-up eligibility or require a clinician to complete an encounter.
Separate the real-name rule from platform compatibility
The national internet-diagnosis supervision baseline requires providers and patients to use real identities and prohibits impersonation. That rule protects the integrity of the medical record and the identity of the treating professional. It does not require every commercial app, hospital mini-program or identity vendor to accept every nationality, passport type, name length, script, mobile number or residence status through the same automated interface.
Ask the accountable medical institution which identity documents its exact online channel accepts, whether a foreign passport can be verified automatically or manually and what alternative exists when the app is incompatible. Do not conclude that foreigners are prohibited merely because one form requests a Chinese resident identity number. Conversely, do not treat a platform's registration approval as a guarantee of appointment, follow-up eligibility, first-visit access or any clinical service.
- National real-name requirement
- Provider-specific accepted identity documents
- Platform-specific automated or manual verification
- Alternative official registration route
- Separate clinical eligibility decision
Real-name use is mandatory; universal passport compatibility is not promised. Ask the responsible institution for its current route.
Create an exact passport identity record
Use the passport that the patient will present if the provider requests identity confirmation. Ask staff how to enter surname, given names, spaces, hyphens, capitalization, nationality, date of birth and passport number, and whether the current passport should be linked to an older number. Keep a screenshot of the provider's instructions and the resulting profile, but mask unnecessary identity details when asking general customer-service questions.
Do not translate the legal name into a new English or Chinese name unless the institution tells you how that alias is stored. A small difference in name order or document number can create a second patient profile and separate prior records from the online encounter. When continuing care, provide the existing hospital patient number and ask staff to confirm the match before creating another profile or uploading sensitive records repeatedly.
- Passport surname and given names
- Exact number, nationality and date of birth
- Current and previous passport linkage when relevant
- Existing hospital patient number
- Provider-confirmed name order and alias handling
Distinguish the login account from the patient record
A mobile number, messaging account or app login may authenticate access to the platform without being the patient's medical identity. Ask whether a mainland mobile number is required, whether a foreign number can receive verification codes, whether changing the number affects access and which patient profile is selected inside the account. Do not assume the account holder and patient are automatically the same person, especially when one family member manages several profiles.
Confirm which medical institution holds and manages the patient record, how the internet-hospital visit links to an existing outpatient record and how the patient can recover access after changing a phone, passport or device. Save the institution's official recovery route rather than relying on a private support account. The goal is one traceable patient identity across registration, consent, encounter, record and payment, not merely a login that reaches the waiting room.
A successful login proves access to an account. It does not by itself prove the selected patient identity or correct medical-record linkage.
Document guardian, family and assistant authority
If a parent, guardian, family member, employer assistant or travel companion helps, ask which role the platform supports and what proof is required. Registration help, appointment management, informed consent, participation in the encounter, payment and records access are separate permissions. The internet-diagnosis rules still require the patient to be correctly identified, and medical-record rules restrict who may request copies or act for another person.
For a child, ask how the guardian's identity and relationship are recorded and whether both the guardian account and the child's passport must be verified. Information about children under 14 and health information are sensitive personal information under national law. Do not place a child under an unrelated adult's patient profile or assume that technical access creates legal authority. For the 2026 Beijing first-visit pilot, guardian accompaniment is an explicit condition in addition to the platform's identity workflow.
- Person managing the login account
- Patient named in the medical record
- Guardian or representative proof
- Consent and encounter-participation authority
- Payment and records-copy authority
Resolve failed verification and duplicate records
Capture the error message, date, channel name, document type selected and masked portion of the entered name or number. Contact the institution through its independently verified official route and ask whether the failure concerns unsupported document type, name format, expired passport, mobile verification, an existing profile or a system outage. Provide the minimum evidence needed and request a case or ticket number rather than sending a full passport to multiple informal contacts.
If two profiles exist, ask the medical institution whether it can link, correct or administratively reconcile them and which patient number should be used going forward. Do not delete an account, rewrite a name or create repeated profiles in the hope that prior medical records will merge automatically. The official record has custody and correction procedures, and a patient should preserve copies of existing encounter documents while the institution handles the identity issue.
- Dated error screenshot and channel details
- Masked identity fields used in the attempt
- Official support case or ticket number
- Existing patient numbers and encounter dates
- Institution-confirmed record-reconciliation plan
Use local examples carefully and protect sensitive data
Two official examples show why the exact provider route must be confirmed. A January 2025 Guangdong guide states that Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital's Dingbei Doctor system supported overseas Chinese in registering with a passport number and a foreign mobile number linked to WeChat for remote consultation. That example does not prove access for every foreign patient or establish that a remote consultation is regulated internet diagnosis. Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital guidance documents a different limitation: a passport can be used for onsite registration, but the electronic-health-card platform cannot use it to create a file inside that internet hospital, so the patient must register onsite and use another route for online business.
These examples prove only that provider-specific support and fallback routes can be published. They do not compel another platform, another hospital in the same province or a future service version to accept the same document, phone number, proxy relationship or language. Confirm the current route directly with the accountable institution before uploading a passport, face image or medical record.
Use the minimum information required, review the named recipient and avoid unverified chat, personal cloud links or public email where a secure institutional route exists. If online registration remains unavailable, ask about an official telephone, international desk or physical-institution registration fallback; do not falsify identity data or delay a perceived emergency to solve an app problem.
A local foreign-passport example is evidence for that published workflow only, not a nationwide entitlement.
Useful language
Navigation phrases
Show the Chinese characters when pronunciation is uncertain. Use the copy button to send one phrase through a trusted channel without retyping it.
Avoidable problems
Common mistakes
- Assuming the national real-name rule guarantees that every app accepts a foreign passport.
- Entering a Chinese resident identity number belonging to someone else or inventing identity data.
- Changing name order repeatedly and creating duplicate patient profiles.
- Treating the login account, mobile number and patient medical record as the same identity layer.
- Uploading a full passport to an unverified customer-service or social-media account.
- Assuming a spouse, employer assistant or companion automatically has consent and records authority.
- Generalizing a Guangdong or Yantai provider example into nationwide foreign-passport access.
- Deleting an account before preserving its patient number, records and transaction evidence.
- Assuming successful registration means the physician must accept the online encounter.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Do all internet hospitals in China accept foreign passports?
No national source guarantees universal platform compatibility. The real-name rule requires accurate identity, while each institution and channel publishes or confirms its accepted documents and verification method. Ask the accountable institution for its current passport route and an official fallback if automated verification is unavailable.
Can I use a Chinese friend's identity number to register?
No. National supervision rules require real-name use and prohibit impersonation. Using another person's identity can attach the encounter, consent, record and prescription history to the wrong patient. Ask the institution for a foreign-passport, manual, telephone or physical-registration route instead.
Why does my hospital patient number not appear in the app?
The login account, app patient profile and institution medical record may not be linked automatically. Confirm the exact name and passport format, old document number, mobile number and existing patient number with the institution. Ask it to reconcile records rather than creating repeated profiles.
Can my spouse or assistant manage the online visit for me?
Only through the roles and authority accepted by the institution. Booking help, patient identity, informed consent, participation, payment and record access are separate. Ask what authorization and identity proof are required, and do not assume account access makes another person the patient or legal representative.
Does one provider's foreign-passport route work across China?
No. The Guangdong guide describes passport-number and foreign-mobile registration for remote consultation at one named provider and for a defined audience, while the Yantai page documents an internet-hospital registration limitation and onsite fallback. Neither creates a national entitlement, proves regulated internet-diagnosis eligibility or guarantees that another hospital, platform, mobile number or future system version will use the same process.
What if passport verification still fails?
Preserve a masked error screenshot, contact the medical institution through an independently verified official route and request a ticket plus an alternative registration method. Share only the minimum necessary data. Do not falsify information, use another person's account or delay a perceived emergency to troubleshoot the app.
Evidence
Sources consulted for this guide
National rules are separated from city and provider examples. Access dates show when a source was collected; source pages and procedures can change afterward.