By Audrey Cooney, news correspondent

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) may expand its renowned healthcare practice internationally by opening a hospital in China.

Currently in the preliminary stages, the plan gained momentum over the past month when MGH signed a framework agreement with its two potential partners. The first, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, was described in an internal memo sent by MGH President Peter L. Slavin, M.D. and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization CEO and Chairman David F. Torchiana, M.D. on Oct. 17 as “a comprehensive TCM hospital striving for improvements in medicine, education and scientific research.” The other, Kanghua Healthcare Investments Limited, is a Chinese investment firm that would contribute to the hospital’s development.

Guangdong Provincial Hospital would jointly manage MGH China along with Mass. General administration, working to create “a new facility with a robust international standard of practice and an ongoing commitment of MGH leadership to the new hospital’s governance and management,” according to an official MGH press release.

“This framework agreement highlights the importance of establishing scientific research, promoting training programs for medical staff, setting up educational and training programs at the MGH China Hospital, with a goal of combining the best of traditional Chinese medicine and modern Western medicine,” the press release stated.

The hospital’s finances hinge on the participation of Kanghua Healthcare, as Mass. General plans to offer no financial contribution to the construction of the hospital.

MGH Hospital China, as it would be called, would bring in revenue for its parent hospital as well, while most hospitals in the US are struggling to grow. This is a result of strong encouragement from both government and insurance agencies to either slow the rate at which hospitals’ raise their prices or, ideally, to lower their prices, according to an article from the Boston Globe. It is difficult for MGH to expand within Massachusetts due to regulations on its parent company, Partners HealthCare, that impede potential domestic expansion.

Carl Nelson, an associate professor of business and strategy at Northeastern, believes that this partnership could benefit people coming from the US in addition to Chinese citizens.

“I think, and I think it’s been demonstrated… how much we here in the United States have learned about the provision of medical care and public health care and ways to do things better by having some of our people go abroad and work abroad for some period of time, whether it’s some doctor who’s going to Haiti or working on Ebola or bringing what they learned back to this country,” Nelson said.

According to Nelson, this venture would allow MGH to expand the knowledge of their staff and improve the status of the hospital.

“I think this could open up learning opportunities, research opportunities, give them an entrée that they don’t have. And that enables them to show some of their major stakeholders and others that they too can be a global player, which most businesses try to be these days,” Nelson said.

The growing number of wealthy Chinese citizens also makes this option appealing to foreign investors. If the plan for a new hospital reaches fruition, it would be constructed in Zhuhai City on an island approximately 30 miles outside Hong Kong, according to the Globe. The island has been presented as standing at the cusp of a development boom, with plans for recreational facilities, including a resort, already underway.

William Grimes, chair of Boston University’s Department of International Relations, offered his opinion on the effects this deal could have for all involved parties.

“This should have positive benefits for Mass General, for Zhuhai City and for the Chinese medical system,” Grimes said. “Over the past 30 years, allowing foreign businesses into the country has had positive effects for China. This has been seen most extensively in the corporate sector, where joint ventures with US, European, Japanese, Taiwanese and South Korean firms have led to significant upgrading, while also providing a foothold in China for the foreign investor.”

MGH China’s current design would offer not only all the services of a working hospital but also other outreach programs.

“It is designed to be a 500-bed medical facility including research and education centers, with the potential to be expanded to an 800- to 1,000-bed facility as needed,” the press release stated.

China currently faces an extreme shortage of available hospital beds to the point that, two years ago, the country’s government decided to allow foreigners to both invest in the Chinese medical system and offer their expert opinions on medical matters. Along with the lack of beds, China also has too few doctors to adequately treat all those in need of medical attention within the country. With so few physicians, direct contact between patients and their doctors frequently lasts no longer than between five and ten minutes. As China grows, American expertise could also help improve China’s healthcare system, according to Nelson.

“I think as they are modernizing, they’re seeing more of the problems that we see in the West, so that’s another reason why they’re turning to US healthcare providers,” Nelson said. “We do know a lot more about cardiac care, about cancer care related to smoking.”

Milli Croman, a senior health sciences major, agrees that differences present between the Chinese and American healthcare systems could combine to produce a more complete level of care for Chinese patients.

“The issues there are not that China lacks the medical technology or advancements in care,” Croman explained. “It’s that they fail to provide quality care because there are so many people, and because their approach to healthcare is so different.”

According to Croman, the majority of Chinese doctors are highly intelligent and well-trained. Yet, she continued, patients could benefit from the level of empathy that MGH physicians bring to the patient treatment.

“MGH is very well known for [its] exemplary care, which includes not only intelligent doctors, but personable ones who can relate and interact with patients of all backgrounds,” Croman said.

According to officials, plans for a new hospital are strictly preliminary, as MGH has not determined if it will participate. The internal memo assured hospital employees that the agreement is “non-binding.”

“[This] will allow us to continue the planning and due diligence necessary to determine whether to commit to this effort further,” the memo stated.

Executives intend to determine before next summer whether they will go through with the plan. If they do, the new hospital would help address a gap in the current Chinese healthcare system, along with allowing one of the oldest general hospitals in the US to expand.

“This should be a good opportunity to upgrade patient systems, data systems, etc. in the Chinese hospital,” Rimes said. “It should also benefit MGH, whose doctors and other medical professionals will have the chance to learn more about the Chinese health system and observe how Chinese health professionals deal with health problems there.”

Photo by Arzu Martinez