Traditional medicine hospital in China accused of setting ‘sales targets’ for staff

A hospital in central China has been accused of requiring its staff to meet admissions targets for patients, and of responding violently to reporters’ requests for comment.

Practices at the Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital in Zheng Zhou county, Henan province, were exposed on Friday in a report by the local television station which included an interview with the partner of an employee at the facility.

The interviewee, whose gender and identity were obscured, claimed their partner and other staff at the hospital had been given a verbal instruction to each achieve five inpatient admissions or have their salaries deducted by 200 yuan (US$28.40).

“The hospital is privately owned and newly established, so maybe because of that their performance is not that good. They held a meeting yesterday afternoon [to make the order] … Actually I don’t care about the 200 yuan but just found their requirement ridiculous,” the person told Henan Radio & Television station.

A reporting crew from the station visited the hospital – established in May as a collaboration with the Henan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital – on Friday morning to verify the claim. A few of the nurses confirmed the hospital’s management had made the requirement, with one saying her father had already stayed in the hospital “to meet the sales target”.