How do I choose a hospital?
The first step is to judge the severity of the condition:
1) In critical conditions, such as coughing up blood, difficulty breathing, severe chest tightness, chest pain, and possibly concurrent changes in vital signs (temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, respiration) (e.g., blue lips, rapid breathing, deepening or shallowing of breathing, nodding breathing, snoring breathing, etc.), you should immediately call the emergency number and seek medical attention nearby. Because life-threatening situations may occur at this time, receiving treatment one second earlier may bring hope for life. This is why it is important not to choose a hospital that is near or far.
2) When the above critical conditions have stabilized after resuscitation, or when there are only common symptoms of lung cancer, such as less severe chest tightness, chest pain, cough, or blood in sputum, you can choose to see a regular hospital outpatient clinic. You can see a community hospital first, and if your doctor highly suspects a tumor, he or she will refer you to a higher level hospital; or you can go directly to a secondary or tertiary hospital.
What department to see?
Community hospitals often have only “internal and external women and children” departments, so you can start with internal medicine. In secondary and tertiary hospitals, there are more subspecialties, so you can choose from thoracic surgery, respiratory medicine, medical oncology, and radiation therapy.
In principle, surgery is the mainstay of surgical treatment, chemotherapy and targeted therapy in internal medicine, radiotherapy in radiology, and Chinese medicine in traditional Chinese medicine.
Of course, you may not be able to tell which treatments you need, so consult the guide desk first.
Co-Author: Dr. Ma Yue, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University