Renshu Medical secures nearly 100 million yuan in additional funding, launching

On March 24, TreeENT Health, a domestic chain medical brand specializing in ENT (ear, nose, and throat) services, announced the completion of a 100 million yuan Pre-B round financing in March. The funding was led by Qianji Capital with follow-on investment from existing shareholder斯道资本 (Fidelity Asia). Previously, on February 26, 2019, TreeENT Health secured tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing from斯道资本 (Fidelity Asia) and F-Prime Capital Partners. Earlier still, on November 24, 2016, the company received angel round funding from华创资本.Established in April 2016, TreeENT Health is a chain medical service brand specializing in ophthalmology and ENT (ear, nose, and throat) services with international day surgery centers as its hallmark. Starting with its Hangzhou day surgery center launched in 2017 in China's first Medical Mall, TreeENT Health has honed its operations over six years. The company has transformed its capital advantages into scale and first-mover advantages, expanding nationwide. Following Hangzhou and Shenzhen, TreeENT Health will open chain clinics and specialty hospitals in Shanghai and Guangzhou. It continues to strengthen collaborations with renowned domestic hospitals and doctors to establish shared specialist studios, refining its business and treatment models to maturity.

Day surgery is an important development direction for China's healthcare future.

With the advancement of anesthesia technology and minimally invasive surgical techniques, along with the improvement of medical service levels and efficiency, day surgery has emerged and been widely implemented worldwide. In the United States, the number of day surgeries completed on the same day without hospitalization has long far exceeded inpatient surgeries, with ENT procedures accounting for 24% of all day surgeries. In China, due to its superior model, day surgery is increasingly advocated by the government. In the 2017 key tasks for deepening healthcare reform, the State Council proposed that local governments should organize pilot day surgery programs in tertiary hospitals. That same year, the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission took the lead in identifying 158 recommended day surgery procedures and techniques.

At an industry conference, a health official cited an example from a friend to illustrate the development potential of day surgery. According to the official, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital affiliated with Washington University, a 92-year-old patient underwent hip replacement surgery in the morning. That same afternoon, after evaluation by the anesthesiology professor and surgeon, the patient was notified they could be discharged that evening. Nearly 70% of hip replacement surgery patients at this hospital can be discharged on the day of surgery or the next day. By comparison, for the same surgery at tertiary hospitals in eastern Chinese cities, the average hospital stay is 12 days. The gap in day surgery between China and the U.S. is astonishing. It is reported that in 2014, day surgeries accounted for 85% of elective surgeries in England, 72% in Scotland, about 80% in the U.S., 70% in Portugal, about 65% in Sweden and Spain, 52% in the Netherlands, 37% in Hungary, while France increased from 32% in 2007 to 47% in 2014, reaching about 60% in 2015.

Xu Jinghuan, founder of Renshu Medical, stated: "Day surgery has been developing since the 1980s. Today in Europe and America, 70% or more of elective ENT surgeries are performed as day surgeries. But this proportion remains very low in China - even in first-tier or quasi-first-tier cities like Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, it should be less than 5%, so there is significant market demand." Xu believes that whether in public or private healthcare, day surgery centers represent a major trend that patients, doctors and the government are all willing to promote.

 

Specialty departments meeting market demand

 

In today's healthcare system, private medical institutions must possess differentiated service features and professional core competencies to attract patients and market favor. Renshu Medical's successful Pre-B round financing is closely related to its specialty departments that meet market needs.

 

In recent years, niche specialty markets have emerged, where refined services hold considerable appeal for meeting patient healthcare demands. Renshu Medical has precisely targeted the ENT specialty field, investing substantial effort and resources to continuously strengthen its discipline development and treatment standards, achieving precision in medical services.

 

ENT diseases feature numerous types, high incidence rates, and significant impacts on quality of life, with surgery being the most common and effective treatment. However, public hospitals face long surgical wait times, averaging 5-7 days hospitalization, creating urgent market demand for quality private healthcare. Accordingly, Renshu Medical has introduced internationally-standardized medical systems, led by domestic and international ENT specialists, developing dozens of day surgery procedures for common, frequent, chronic and complex ENT conditions aligned with global clinical standards.

 

Currently, beyond ENT, Renshu Medical has successively expanded to establish specialty clinics such as adolescent gynecology, orthopedics, and pediatric surgery. Xu Jinghuan revealed this decision was based on big data analysis showing complementary patient groups and intersecting disease conditions, leading Renshu to add departments highly intersecting with ENT while providing multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment services.

 

As an ENT specialty institution, Renshu Medical implements personalized triage according to different symptoms. For pediatric adenoid hypertrophy, it provides internationally-advanced minimally invasive surgery, while offering non-invasive CPAP therapy (the gold standard) for sleep apnea. Tailored treatment plans maximize precision diagnosis and refined service for each patient's condition and needs.

Currently ENT diseases show high prevalence but low treatment rates among China's population aged 20 and above. Looking at the development trends of ENT diseases and the maturity of China's diagnosis and treatment system in this field, ENT as a specialized medical sector is expected to see tremendous growth opportunities in the next decade. This presents significant development potential for medical institutions like Renshu Medical that specialize in ENT services.

Humanized service, medical quality and safety are all essential

In terms of service, Renshu Medical's efficient process of "1-minute expert appointment booking, 1-hour consultation and testing, 1-day surgery discharge" has attracted many renowned doctors and patients while greatly improving the utilization of quality medical resources. The hospital implements a full appointment system where patients can book expert appointments within one minute through multiple channels. Time-slot scheduling ensures each patient has sufficient time to communicate with the attending doctor. Through one-on-one guidance, patients can complete all required examinations during their visit. Continuous optimization of operational processes enables patients to efficiently finish consultation and all tests within one hour, saving time while forming a closed-loop diagnosis process.

For medical quality standards, Renshu Medical's entire quality management system strictly follows and implements international DNV quality standards. The Hangzhou facility is both an outpatient clinic and day surgery center that has obtained DNV international certification. It is also a cooperating unit for China's national "13th Five-Year Plan" hearing loss primary prevention project, member of Zhejiang pediatric ENT diagnosis and treatment alliance, and part of Hangzhou ENT specialist medical consortium.

Regarding medical safety, Renshu Medical not only selects day surgery procedures that meet national health authority requirements but also adopts internationally advanced minimally invasive techniques and rapid recovery methods. Each surgery is performed by the attending physician with two anesthesiologists assisting to ensure minimal trauma, shortest possible operation time and fastest recovery, with follow-up continuing until full recovery. To meet actual patient needs, especially reducing surgical risks for children, the hospital innovatively performs multiple procedures under single anesthesia through multidisciplinary cooperation, greatly improving patient experience.

Looking ahead, Renshu Medical's Shanghai Day Surgery Center is set to open soon, with a Guangzhou specialty hospital also planned for 2022.

Over the next three years, Renshu Medical will establish an ENT specialty network in the Greater Bay Area and Yangtze River Delta region featuring "1 specialty hospital + multiple day surgery centers + N satellite clinics." This tiered system will provide differentiated treatment for mild, moderate and severe cases, expanding access to more patients with diverse medical needs.

In the longer term, Renshu Medical aims to achieve comprehensive coverage across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Central China and Southwest China, while developing into a national platform that attracts top ENT specialists and talent across the country.