The Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Department at Sanya Central Hospital (The Third People's Hospital of Hainan Province) was established in 2009 as the first specialized respiratory department in the southern region of Hainan Province. It is one of the first tertiary hospitals in China to meet the standardized construction requirements for PCCM specialists. The department serves as a national GCP drug trial base, a national standardized residency training center, a postgraduate training base for Hainan Medical University, and an undergraduate internship base for Hunan University of Medicine. Additionally, it has been designated as a key clinical specialty in Sanya, the leading unit of the Sanya Respiratory Quality Control Center, a vice-chair unit of the Respiratory Medicine Branch of the Hainan Medical Association, a vice-chair unit of the Internal Medicine Branch of the Hainan Medical Association, and the chair unit of the Internal Medicine Committee of the Sanya Medical Association.

The department currently boasts a team of 8 senior experts and 50 professional staff members, including 1 postgraduate supervisor, 1 postdoctoral researcher, 4 master's degree holders, 1 master's degree candidate, and 5 graduate students in training. The department has 70 inpatient beds and is equipped with a Respiratory Intensive Care Unit (RICU), a Lung Cancer Ward, a General Ward, a Bronchoscopy Room, a Pulmonary Function Testing Room, a Sleep Monitoring Room, a Lung Cancer and Pulmonary Nodule Specialty Clinic, and a Smoking Cessation Clinic. As the most comprehensive and advanced respiratory specialty in southern Hainan, the department integrates infection management, lung cancer treatment, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care, asthma management, interstitial lung disease treatment, pulmonary vascular disease treatment, respiratory rehabilitation, interventional pulmonology, and critical care medicine. With its extensive clinical resources, the department is recognized as the leading respiratory specialty in the region in terms of subspecialty breadth, technical strength, and critical care capabilities. In 2024, the department signed long-term collaboration agreements with two of China's top respiratory institutions (the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at the Chinese PLA General Hospital and the Bronchoscopy Unit of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health). This partnership aims to enhance clinical expertise, academic exchange, and professional training.

The department actively participates in China's 13th Five-Year Major Research Projects and National Natural Science Foundation projects. It has undertaken 8 provincial and municipal research projects, conducted over 10 national GCP clinical drug trials, hosted more than 20 national and provincial continuing medical education programs, and published nearly 100 high-level academic papers. Notably, it has received the First Prize in Sanya’s Science and Technology Progress Awards.