Many Effective Solutions for Better Healthcare Quality

With consistent solutions, Bac Giang's health sector has improved patient satisfaction through a stronger grassroots network and advanced techniques at upper-level hospitals.

The health sector has improved patient satisfaction with better local services and advanced hospital techniques

Improving grassroots health, specialized health

The completed sick bed expansion in Tan Yen, Lang Giang, Hiep Hoa, Luc Ngan, Yen Dung, Viet Yen and other medical centers has enabled the strong development of the grassroots health network of Bac Giang.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, Director of the Bac Giang Department of Health, said: Currently, the province has 233 public health units (12 provincial units, 11 district units and 209 commune clinics). The Provincial People's Committee, districts, towns and cities have spent more than VND1.4 trillion on renovating, upgrading and building new district-level public health facilities since 2020. In addition to bed expansion projects for medical centers in Tan Yen, Lang Giang, Hiep Hoa, Luc Ngan and Yen Dung districts and Viet Yen town. The province is also urgently completing medical center projects in Luc Nam, Yen The and Son Dong districts. At the same time, more than VND76 billion has been spent for medical centers to purchase equipment and more than VND42 billion has been used for renovating and repairing facilities. Most of medical centers are fully furnished with medical equipment, capable of serving local people. In particular, high-quality medical services such as hemodialysis and endoscopic surgery have been deployed.

Not only investing in infrastructure, the province is also always interested in developing policies for recruiting, training and arranging reasonable staff; supports training and attracts high-quality human resources. Thus, the quality of examination and treatment at medical facilities has been improved. The province aims that each commune-level medical station will have at least one full-time doctor, and each village will have one professionally trained medical staff by 2030.

In addition, the strong socialization of medical services has contributed to reducing the burden on the public health system and facilitating people's access to a variety of medical services. The province has 675 non-public medical and traditional medicine facilities and 1,916 pharmaceutical businesses. As of September 2024, the ratio of doctors to 10,000 residents was 12.5 and the ratio of university pharmacists to 10,000 residents was 2.5. All communes, wards and towns have medical stations staffed with full-time doctors.

In particular, Bac Giang province continues to focus on developing modern advanced technologies and becomes one of the leaders in the country to apply advanced and specialized techniques to serve public healthcare. The Department of Health approved and added 8,512 new techniques to units. Many specialized techniques have been deployed like Continuous Veno-Venous Hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) for patients with multiple organ failures and for patients with acute pancreatitis, and Continuous Veno-Venous Hemofiltration (CVVH) for ARDS patients.

In the first nine months of 2024, medical examinations totaled 2,077,531, equal to 84% of the full-year plan and up 8.5% year on year. The hospital bed occupancy was 105.9% of the capacity, equal to 118.6% of the yearly plan and up 4.4% year on year.

Administrative reform, service quality improvement

In addition to developing primary healthcare and specialized healthcare, the Bac Giang health sector has always focused on renovating management and operation and enhancing competitiveness, especially administrative reform together with service quality improvement. The Department of Health issued many plans and directive documents on implementation of tasks and solutions to raise the quality of administrative procedure reform. Currently, the department has 115 public administrative procedures at the Public Administration Service Center, including 55 Level 3 procedures and 60 Level 4 procedures.

The sector has also accelerated digital transformation and information technology application in medical examinations and treatment. The Department of Health built the Operation Center to direct and operate the health sector and continued to direct relevant units to purchase equipment, build a pilot electronic medical record to move towards smart hospital practices and adopt cashless payments.

Currently, these units have maintained and operated deployed platforms to serve medical examination and treatment as well as administration like vaccination management platform, electronic health record platform, remote medical examination and treatment consultation support platform, and commune health station platform (grassroots healthcare). All 24 units have promoted cashless payment. All of them use QR codes, one uses mobile money, 12 use POS, eight install QR code to collect money paid for hospital fees, medical services and other transactions.

In the first nine months of 2024, the Department of Health received a total of 3,058 records, including 2,919 new records and 139 records rolled over from the previous period. The department returned 2,961 completed records, including 2,873 record results delivered before the deadline (97%) and 88 record results returned on time (3%). 1,933 out of 3,058 records were delivered via public postal services (70.3%). 97 records were not due yet.

In particular, carrying out the “Reforming the service manner and attitude of health workers for patient satisfaction”, every year, the Department of Health launches a plan for implementation of the Grassroots Democracy Regulations and Code of Conduct, and reform of the service manner and attitude of health workers for patient satisfaction for relevant units to follow. According to the District and Department Competitiveness Index (DDCI) in 2023, the department ranked 4th among 20 provincial agencies, climbing up 10 places from 2022. Its Satisfaction Index of Public Administrative Services (SIPAS) Index reached 99.61% in 2023, ranked top among 17 agencies, up 10 places from a year earlier.

Nguyen Thi Thu Huong said: To promote its achievements, the health sector will continue to focus on carrying out consistent solutions to raise the quality of medical examination and treatment, develop specialized medicine and grassroots medicine. It will strengthen training, improve the qualifications of health workers and uphold medical ethics towards patient satisfaction, thus providing better healthcare service for people in particular and contributing to the sustainable development of Bac Giang province in general.

By Ngoc Tung, Vietnam Business Forum