Medical Records and Follow-Up After Treatment in China (2026)

Before you fly home from treatment in China, you need three things: complete copies of your medical records, your imaging in DICOM format, and documentation of anything that was implanted. Chinese regulations clearly give you the right to all of this — patients may inspect and copy essentially their entire record, and hospitals must provide the copying service. This guide explains exactly what to collect, how the copying process works, what to have translated, and how to hand over care to your doctor or dentist at home.

Your legal right to copies of your records (病历复印)

Two national rules matter here. The Regulation on the Prevention and Handling of Medical Disputes (State Council Order No. 701, in force since October 2018) states that patients have the right to inspect and copy their outpatient record, admission notes, temperature charts, doctor's orders, lab reports, medical imaging, consent forms for surgery and special examinations, operation and anesthesia records, pathology, nursing records, medical bills — in short, the entire record as defined by the health authorities. The hospital must provide a copying service, stamp the copies with its official seal, and may only charge a cost-of-materials fee with publicly posted prices.

The older but still applicable Regulation on Medical Record Management in Medical Institutions (2013 edition) sets out the procedure:

• Who can apply: the patient, or an authorized agent with a power of attorney; for deceased patients, the legal heirs or their agents.
• What to bring: your valid identity document (for international patients, your passport). An agent additionally needs both identity documents, proof of the relationship, and a written authorization.
• Where: hospitals must designate a department or staff member to handle copy requests — usually the medical records room (病案室) or the inpatient service center. International departments will often walk you through it.
• How it works: the records are copied in your presence, then checked by both sides and stamped with the hospital's certification seal. That seal matters — insurers and foreign doctors treat a stamped copy as authentic.
• If the record isn't finished yet: you can have the completed portion copied first and the rest after the doctors finish writing it up. Inpatient records are often finalized days after discharge, so plan a pickup or ask whether the international department can mail or email them.

Electronic records have the same legal force as paper ones, and hospitals must keep outpatient records for at least 15 years and inpatient records for at least 30 years — so a copy can be obtained later. In practice, though, requesting from abroad is slow and may require a notarized authorization for a local agent. Copy everything before you leave China.

The checklist: what to collect before flying home

• Discharge summary (出院记录) — the single most important document
• Operation record (手术记录) and anesthesia record (麻醉记录)
• Lab reports (检验报告) and pathology report (病理报告), if any
• Imaging reports and the images themselves (see below)
• Consent forms you signed
• Itemized bills and official receipts (发票) — needed for insurance claims
• Prescription list with generic drug names — see medicines and prescriptions
• Implant, lens or device documentation (see below)

The US CDC gives the same advice to all medical travelers: get copies of all your records from the facility before you return home, and have them translated if needed.

Imaging: ask for DICOM files, not just films

A printed film or a PDF report is not enough for a doctor at home who wants to measure, compare or re-read your scans. Ask the imaging department for the original digital files in DICOM format — the international standard format that radiology software worldwide can open. Chinese hospitals typically offer one or more of:

• CD/DVD burned at the imaging department (sometimes a small fee);
• USB export at self-service kiosks in newer hospitals;
• Cloud links or QR codes in the hospital's app or on the report — convenient, but links often expire after weeks or months and the viewer may be Chinese-only. If you receive a QR-code link, download the full-resolution DICOM archive while still in China and save it to your own storage.

Check the disc or files on a laptop before you leave the hospital: the folder should contain many large files (often with a viewer program), not just JPG screenshots. For CT and MRI, the thin-slice series is what specialists want. Keep a backup in cloud storage you can access from home — some Chinese platforms require a mainland phone number to log in, which is a problem once your SIM expires; see apps and connectivity.

Implants, lenses and devices: get the cards and specifications

If anything was implanted or fitted, the exact specifications are part of your long-term medical safety. Before discharge, make sure you have:

• Dental implants: an implant passport or card stating brand, system, diameter, length and lot number of each fixture, plus the abutment and crown material. Your home dentist cannot maintain or restore an implant without knowing the system — see dental implants.
• Cataract surgery: the intraocular lens (IOL) card with model and power of the lens in each eye — essential for any future eye care; see cataract surgery.
• Orthopedic implants: the implant stickers or a printout listing manufacturer, model and serial/lot numbers (hospitals keep these with the operation record — ask for a copy); relevant for joint replacement.
• Any device: written confirmation of MRI compatibility, and a doctor's letter you can show airport security if the implant may trigger metal detectors.
• Glasses and hearing aids: the final prescription and fitting parameters so they can be adjusted or replaced at home.

If you were only given verbal information, ask the international department in writing for the device details — they are recorded in the operation note, which you are entitled to copy.

Translation: what you need and when

Records are normally issued in Chinese. International departments at major hospitals can often provide an English discharge summary on request — ask early, not on your last day. For everything else:

• Translate at minimum the discharge summary, operation record, pathology report and current medication list.
• For insurance claims, insurers usually require translations by a professional translator, sometimes certified or sworn depending on your country — check your policy first; see insurance for treatment abroad.
• Lab reports are semi-standardized (analyte names are often printed in English too), so your doctor may manage with the original plus a translated summary.
• Keep the Chinese originals alongside any translation; a doctor who reads Chinese, or machine translation with your doctor double-checking critical values, can fill gaps — but don't rely on machine translation alone for drug names and dosages.

Continuing care with your home doctor or dentist

Follow-up is the weak point of all treatment abroad, so build the bridge before you travel, not after:

1. Before the trip, tell your home doctor or dentist what you plan to have done in China and ask what documentation they will want. Some will suggest specific tests to bring back.
2. While in China, ask the treating doctor for a written follow-up plan: what checks are needed, at what intervals, what warning signs to watch for, and what the next practitioner needs to know.
3. Back home, book the follow-up visit within the recommended window and hand over the full package — records, DICOM files, implant cards, medication list. For staged treatments such as dental implants or orthodontics, agree who does which stage: the Chinese clinic, your home dentist, or both in coordination.

Be aware that some practitioners at home are reluctant to take over work started elsewhere. It is easier to find one willing if you bring complete, stamped, translated documentation — and much harder if all you have is a verbal account.

Remote follow-up: useful, but limited

Many large Chinese hospitals run internet-hospital platforms and follow-up clinics, and international departments often answer questions by email or messaging apps. Use these channels — but understand the limits:

• Online platforms are built for patients in mainland China: Chinese-language interfaces, mainland phone-number registration, and payment in RMB are common hurdles; see apps and connectivity.
• Doctors in China generally cannot issue prescriptions that pharmacies abroad will honor, and cannot legally practice medicine in your country. Remote advice is informational, not a substitute for local care.
• Time zones and language slow everything down. For anything urgent — fever, bleeding, worsening pain — see a local doctor immediately rather than waiting for an answer from China; see risks and complications.
• Agree the follow-up channel (email address of the international department, a named coordinator) in writing before you leave, and test it once.

Next steps

• Put "request records + DICOM + implant cards" on your planning checklist as a discharge-day task.
• Compare hospitals with international departments that can issue English summaries in our hospital directory.
• Use the bilingual inquiry letter tool to ask a hospital in advance how it handles record copies and English summaries.
• Want a complete trip plan with discharge and follow-up built in? Try the CareAtlas planner.

: CDC — Medical Tourism: Travel to Another Country for Medical Care