During the COVID-19 virus epidemic, in order to minimize the infection, major hospitals cancelled the family escort policy. Therefore, the caregiver escort service team has become an indispensable link in the entire anti-epidemic medical system. The caregiver team basically lacks anti-epidemic Experience, so how to train and manage a caregiver service team during the epidemic has become the most difficult problem in the medical system. During the epidemic, small domestic care worker service intermediaries have basically ceased business, and the national public resources cannot cover the care worker escort service business. Only a group of large private enterprises with responsibility and ability can work together to solve this problem.
In Zhejiang Province, China, during the epidemic, not only professional anti-epidemic experts like Academician Li Lanjuan, but also a large household service company with a 27-year history—Santi Group took the social responsibility. Santi Group is a large and well-renowned private group with 15,000 registered professional staff mainly providing personal caring including patient care, elderly care and confinement.
Ms. Lijun Chang is a seasoned health care management expert with experience in public and private, clinical and business settings. From 1983 to 2019, she grew her medical career at Taixing City People’s Hospital, Jiangsu Province. Over 36 years, she progressed from a junior nurse to the director of the nursing department managing a nursing team of nearly 1,000 people. In early 2003 during the SARS period, Lijun Chang worked as a front-line nursing team manager. She was responsible for prevention and control of nosocomial infections and epidemics. Application of her great experience and knowledge resulted in no patients or medical workers acquiring infection in the hospital. Furthermore, she was awarded 3rd Prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Taixing City, Jiangsu Province in 2007 and 2nd Prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Taixing City, Jiangsu Province in 2018.
Later, her career has been gravitating towards the business side of the health industry. In 2019, she became General Manager of the Healthcare Division at Zhejiang Ruiping Biotechnology Co., Ltd. This company mainly engaged in the operation of medical equipment and health-care drugs, targeting major hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and individuals. She was responsible for developing a health care product system, marketing and distribution channels. Due to her rich experience and network in the medical industry, she led her team to create nearly 200 million RMB revenue for the company. Since 2021, Ms. Chang became General Manager of the Health Care Division at Zhejiang Santi Group. As General Manager of the Health Care Division, she led over 2,000 staff to provide direct service to 15,000 hospital beds that covered several major public and private hospitals including the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, and the Hangzhou Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Lijun Chang formulated a series of management measures in her department. She led the team to develop an employment database and used the data management system for timely dynamic monitoring. The system can monitor staff’s daily body temperature and record a nucleic acid test every 14 days. At the same time, she continuously organized the online training of hospital infection prevention and control methods for the medical practices and achieved zero infection of medical staff.
Recently, Chang Lijun is also leading over the first child care project in China: for the sustainability of epidemic prevention and control in Zhejiang Children’s Hospital, reduce the number of hospitalized children’s family escort, block the spread of the epidemic, and ensure the care of hospitalized children safety, Chang Lijun took the initiative to connect with the hospital and sent an escort service team to nearly 1,000 beds in the two hospitals. This proposal was welcomed and strongly supported by the hospitals. There is no reference before and no reference afterwards. Although it is difficult and risky, Chang Lijun still faces the difficulties and conducts sufficient research. This project is expected to generate nearly 70 million in annual revenue for the company, and will make up for the current shortcomings of child caregiver provide solutions for the child care sector during the epidemic and even in the post-epidemic era.
