Aiming to fulfil its strategic objective of “levels of care/hierarchical medical system and two-way referral”, Tri-Service General Hospital unveiled its “Referral Center” on December 18th, 2018 to officially launch the operations of TSGH’s medical referral center. The unveiling ceremony was presided over by lieutenant general Chen, Surgeon General of Defense and Director General, Medical Affairs Bureau, Ministry of National Defense and was witnessed by Professor Po-Chang Lee, Director General of National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), Ministry of Health and Welfare and Dr. Shu-Ling, Tsai, Deputy Director General of NHIA, among other dignitaries and senior medical staffs from regional healthcare alliance and partnering clinics within Neihu District of Taipei Municipality.

In his remarks during the unveiling ceremony of TSGH’s referral center, Surgeon General Chen has stated that in order to fulfil responsibility born by Taiwan Military Health System and its affiliated military hospitals to achieve MOHW’s policy of “levels of care/hierarchical medical system and two-way referral”, Medical Affairs Bureau under Ministry of National Defense has convene coordination meetings on a regular basis to review performance of all military hospitals’ referral systems and their respective operations. Staffs task-organized by Medical Affairs Bureau also periodically review healthcare information systems of all armed forces hospitals in a bid to construct a platform to facilitate two-way medical referral and to aim for a 2 percent annual reduction of OPD patients seen in armed forces hospitals under Medical Affairs Bureau.

Minister Yen of In his congratulatory remarks, professor Po-Chang Lee, Director General of National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), Ministry of Health and Welfare also states that Taiwan government, guided by the spirit of “For minor illnesses, Patients are advised to seek care at primary care clinics; while patients with more complex medical conditions shall seek specialist care in hospitals”, is striving to promote levels of care/hierarchical medical system and two-way referral policy via the construction of “electronic referral platform”, “Health Insurance Medical Information Cloud Query System”, and “May Health Bank APP”, aimed at guiding the general public in changing their habit of seeking healthcare and incentivizing NHIA beneficiaries to be compliant with the medical referral system policies. Physicians of primary care clinics close to patients within their communities will function as gatekeeper and first line of defense to safeguard the health of the public and subsequently provide more comprehensive care to all NHI beneficiaries by partnering with hospitals within the regions that provide more definitive care.