More and more patients are being diagnosed online and having their medicine delivered to avoid making hospital visits.

It took less than three minutes for Shanghai resident surnamed Zhang to get her prescription for high blood pressure medicine from Shanghai Xuhui Hospital's online platform.

After looking at her records, Doctor Xu Rong gave her the prescription through the hospital's digital diagnosis and prescription platform.

“I was running out of medicine and the digital service helped me avoid long queues at outpatient clinics," Zhang, a woman in her 30s, said.

The medicine will be delivered from the hospital's pharmacy to her home.

Shanghai Xuhui Hospital is one of seven hospitals, including Huashan Hospital, Zhongshan Hospital and Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital, licensed to issue online prescriptions.

Online diagnosis has become an important service for people with mild symptoms or those who want to reduce hospital visits.

One important step forward is that patients now can pay for registration and medical fees through medical insurance, which has been linked to the Internet hospitals' online diagnosis platform.

The seven hospitals have offered more than 7,800 diagnoses and 1,450 prescriptions in nearly two weeks.

The city has also set up a one-stop fever consultation platform made up of more than 90 physicians from 15 local hospitals working in shifts.

As of Sunday, it had received 14,400 phone calls and 144,900 visits via WeChat mini program "novel coronavirus workshop" and served 2,410 patients.

Other online diagnosis platforms offered by city-level hospitals received 1.88 million visits and 111,500 inquiries for non-fever diseases.

Zhu Fu, executive president of Xuhui Hospital, said it is working to enhance its technology capacity as more online visitors turn to the platform. "We're also optimizing its online procedure to cut the waiting time for patients," he said.

Physicians registered for more than three years can offer online consultation and diagnosis and online inquiries remain free of charge. Only prescription medicines require payment.

"We're encouraging Internet hospitals to continue to leverage digital advantages to help manage and treat chronic diseases, carry out health management and rehabilitation, and also to offer public health and quarantine guidance to reduce hospital visits," said Sun Mingming, deputy director of Shanghai Health Commission’s medical administration department.

The commission is also using information technology to supervise Internet medical service providers to ensure quality and safety.