Abstract: Objective To understand the current situation of health service provided by pension institutions in Wanquan district of Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, and hence contribute to formulating the informational foundation for improving pension institutions’ performance. Methods Carried out field investigation on all pension institutions registered in Wanquan district based on the information provided by the Department of Civil Affairs in 2018. Results There were a total of 13 pension institutions for elderly people in Wanquan district. Most of the institutions were located in towns that were in better economic position. No pension institutions were found in five out nine towns in the county. These five towns are located near the Taihang Mountain and far from the urban area. Although 7 out of 13 pension institutions have health care rooms, all of the pension institutions are lacking in medical facilities and in professional medical personnel. No pension institution has rehabilitation room, psychological counseling room, or hospice room. The overall education level of the staffs in these pension institutions is low, with about 75.44% of staffs having only junior high school degree or below. In all the 13 institutions, only three professional medical staffs are found. Further, the average occupancy rate in the pension institutions of Wanquan is only 41.37%. Conclusion Unreasonable geographical distribution, deficiency in medical infrastructure, and low occupancy rate are the main problems found in the pension institutions in Wanquan district. In particular, the health services need to be further improved.

Key words: elderly people, pension institutions, medical services