Practice on fine management of contract countersignature process at public hospitals / 中华医院管理杂志

ABSTRACT

Contract countersignature can effectively avoid potential risks caused by sub-standard contract signing, yet its time consuming process will inevitably delay the contract signing and related business development. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the timely signing of hospital contracts on the premise of meeting internal control requirements. In order to improve the efficiency of contract countersigning, a tertiary hospital has explored various approaches to optimize the contract countersigning process since 2019. These approaches included establishing a three-level centralized contract management model, clarifying the review responsibilities of each countersigning department, customizing the countersigning process, managing the contract by risk classification, and establishing a meeting opportunity system of contract countersigning modification opinions. These measures had cut back the time spent in the contract countersigning process from 12.1 working days in 2018 to 4.2 working days in 2021.