Submitting a medical case to a hospital in China as an international patient

Use this route only for planned, non-urgent intake

A case-submission mailbox, web form or coordinator is an administrative channel. It is not monitored as public emergency dispatch, and a reply target on a hospital page is not a safety deadline. If the patient may need urgent help, contact the emergency service where the patient is physically located. In the Chinese mainland, call 120. Do not delay that route while assembling scans, waiting for translation or seeking an overseas hospital response.

For planned care, define the administrative request in one sentence: for example, asking whether a named department accepts international appointment enquiries or whether the hospital offers a documented pre-arrival record-review route. Do not ask a general intake desk to decide the diagnosis, treatment, fitness to travel or urgency. Those questions require the responsible clinical service through its formal process.

Case intake is not emergency triage. This page cannot assess urgency or tell an individual whether it is safe to wait or travel.

Verify the hospital, campus and responsible office

Start with the institution's Chinese legal name, official hospital website, exact campus and published service. The national information-disclosure catalogue supports checking institutional identity, service scope, hours and patient processes, but a search result, copied logo or old screenshot does not establish a current relationship. Reach the hospital through its own website or a government-linked source, then use the published switchboard or contact page to confirm the international-patient office, referral centre or department handling the request.

Ask whether the recipient works for the hospital, which office owns the case, whether the service is for self-referrals or clinician-to-clinician referrals, and which legal entity will create the patient record and issue any bill. If an external coordinator is involved, ask the hospital to confirm that relationship through an official channel and ask who will store, translate or forward the data. A coordinator's title is not proof of employment, clinical licensure or authority to accept a patient.

• Chinese legal institution name and official domain
• Exact campus, department and service name
• Published switchboard or service contact used for verification
• Responsible office and the role of any intermediary
• Date, time zone and channel of the verification

Obtain the provider's current intake checklist

Ask the verified office for the exact form, fields, languages, file types, size limits, imaging method, naming convention and submission deadline. Also ask whether an appointment request, referral, paid teleconsultation or deposit must exist before staff will review records. Do not copy another provider's list. Peking University International Hospital, for example, publishes a teleconsultation checklist with a physician summary, prior-care records, reports, imaging and a passport copy, while Hangzhou First People's Hospital publishes a non-urgent appointment request and says the department will contact the requester to confirm the visit. Those are two provider-specific services, not a national case packet.

Clarify which items are required now and which should be brought later. A passport information page, insurance card, pathology material, DICOM dataset and translated summary create different security and handling issues. Do not attach every item merely because it might be useful. Ask whether identifying fields may be limited during an initial enquiry and which fields must remain visible for source and patient matching. Never alter a source record to make it appear complete.

• Purpose and type of request
• Patient identity fields required at this stage
• Current-clinician summary or referral, if the provider requires one
• Date range and types of reports requested
• Written imaging reports versus original image data
• Translation language and any translator requirements
• File, physical-material and return instructions

A hospital-specific checklist describes that provider's service. It does not prove that another hospital wants the same documents or accepts the same format.

Verify the channel before sending a passport or medical record

Health records and specified identity information are sensitive personal information under China's Personal Information Protection Law. Confirm through the hospital's current official website or published switchboard that the exact portal, address or account is intended to receive the requested material. Then ask how the channel protects files, how passwords or access links should be sent, who can access the submission, how long it will be retained and how a correction or withdrawal request is handled. An address being official does not by itself mean every transmission method is encrypted or suitable for a passport and complete record.

Do not send a passport, full medical history, image archive or pathology information to a personal account found only in an advertisement, chat group, direct message or search-engine result. Do not move to a personal email or WeChat account merely because someone says hospital systems are inconvenient. If the hospital publishes email as its route, verify the exact address independently and ask whether it wants attachments there or provides a safer upload or password method. Send any password through the separate method the provider specifies, not in the same message by default.

The 2025 national electronic-record notice places security, access-control and traceability duties on medical institutions and requires verification when they receive outside electronic records. It does not create a universal patient upload portal. Preserve the hospital's instruction, your authorization and a list of exactly what was sent so the data path can be reconstructed without redistributing the files.

Build a source-preserving case packet

Use a short cover sheet for administration and a separate document inventory. Match the patient's name and identity details to the provider's instructions. State the requested hospital, campus, service, preferred language, current location and time zone, a reliable contact and the authority of any representative. Give every file a neutral identifier and date, and list its issuing institution, original language and document type. Keep the unedited source securely outside the submission package.

If the provider requests a clinical summary, use one prepared by the current treating professional where possible and label any patient-prepared chronology as patient supplied. Keep original records beside requested translations; do not overwrite measurements, dates, medicine names, pathology wording or report conclusions. A translated index can help navigation but is not a new diagnosis. For imaging and pathology, obtain the exact receiving service's instructions instead of assuming that a PDF, CD, DICOM archive, glass slide or block can use the ordinary form.

• Cover sheet with the exact administrative request
• Patient and representative details required by the provider
• Dated inventory with source, type, language and file name
• Complete originals kept separate from translations and summaries
• Missing, pending or expired items clearly labelled
• No duplicate, unexplained or unrelated attachments

Submit once, preserve evidence and correct safely

Use the provider's subject line, case form and file-naming rules. Record the submission date and time zone, exact recipient, file inventory, transfer reference and any expiry date. Do not mass-email the same packet to hospital departments, personal accounts and agents; duplicate versions can create privacy risk and identity mismatches. If a file is too large or a link expires, ask the recipient for its approved alternative rather than placing the record on a public sharing service.

If something is wrong, do not silently replace a file. Send a correction notice that identifies the case reference, old file, corrected file, reason and date, then ask the responsible office to confirm which version it will use. If the patient withdraws an enquiry, ask the hospital or data recipient for its current withdrawal and data-handling process; do not assume that deleting a sent message deletes every authorized institutional copy or record.

Name the status before acting on a reply

Ask the hospital to state what its message confirms. Technical delivery means only that a system accepted data. Receipt means an office acknowledges it. Completeness means the requested items appear present. Routing means the case was sent to a department. A preliminary record review, a paid remote consultation, an outpatient appointment, inpatient acceptance, an admission order and a bed confirmation are later and different states. Do not translate 'received', 'under review', 'accepted' or 'arranged' into a broader promise without the provider defining the object and responsible decision-maker.

Keep the case reference and ask what remains outstanding, who owns the next step, whether a fee is due, what response channel will be used and when a reasonable administrative follow-up is appropriate. PUMCH's published international inpatient sequence starts with an outpatient doctor, then an admission order if needed and later bed contact. That provider-specific example shows why a submitted case or international-patient appointment must not be described as inpatient admission elsewhere.

• Delivered
• Receipt acknowledged
• Identity and file completeness checked
• Routed to a named service
• Record review completed within a defined scope
• Consultation or appointment confirmed
• Admission or bed status confirmed separately

Submission never guarantees a diagnosis, recommendation, appointment, treatment, admission, bed, price, outcome, visa document or entry permission.