Taking patients as the center in assessing hospital quality
Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh (character's name has been changed) said that last week her mother had an accident in Ninh Binh, so her family took her to Viet Duc Hospital for surgery. She was worried when she saw the hallway full of hospital beds and had to run around registering for the service room. Fortunately, her mother was scheduled for surgery in time and her health is now stable.
According to Ms. Minh, the hospital's doctors have good expertise and service attitude, but hospital bed services are limited. She hopes that when the second facility of Viet Duc Hospital in Ninh Binh comes into operation, it will help local people access better health services.
In 2015, the Ministry of Health officially approved the National Action Program to improve the capacity to manage the quality of medical examination and treatment for the period 2015 - 2025 (Decision 4276/QD-BYT), with the goal of building a national medical examination and treatment system that ensures quality, safety, efficiency and sustainability.
Quality assessment is currently considered by many hospitals as a core task to ensure effective medical services.
Dr. CKI Nguyen Quang Dai - Deputy Head of Quality Management Department, Ho Chi Minh City Eye Hospital - said that all improvement activities come from patient experience.
According to Dr. Dai, the patient's feedback was recorded through the hotline, Zalo OA, the comments box and the survey was satisfying. Some elderly people have difficulty operating on the application, some have complained that they do not leave contact information. However, the hospital still maintains the principle of reception, classification, and feedback to ensure that all comments are seriously considered.
Dr. Dai believes that the patient experience factor must be considered a pillar to evaluate hospital quality, in addition to professional standards and patient safety. However, he also acknowledged that achieving absolute satisfaction is very difficult, because the patient's perception depends on age, medical conditions, psychology, costs and even communication of medical staff.
If we give patients more authority to evaluate, the quality system will change in a more humane direction and in accordance with reality, he commented.
The scoring framework for hospitals needs improvement to create real motivation
One of the common viewpoints of health sector leaders is to score hospitals to build a "quality culture", that is, not only assessing facilities or expertise, but also patient safety, risk management, processes, service systems and patient experience.
Scoring is considered a management tool to help detect the strengths and weaknesses of each medical facility; thereby having a clear roadmap for improvement. Scoring (with transparent and objective criteria) helps information about hospital quality become public, creating conditions for people to choose a suitable hospital, while creating pressure for the hospital to improve.
Sharing with Lao Dong reporter, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Cao Binh - Director of Hanoi Central Dental and Maxillofacial Hospital - said that each year the hospital will conduct a self-assessment once, according to general criteria issued by the Ministry of Health. The hospital scoring process includes self-inspection steps, data collection and assessment according to quality standards, thereby synthesizing the results to rank the hospital. The main steps include: Update hospital information, enter activity data, survey patient and staff satisfaction, enter scores from assessment criteria, synthesize and submit inspection evidence...
Dr. Ha Anh Duc - Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment - Ministry of Health - said: Completing standards, digital transformation, human resource training, reasonable route allocation, ensuring uniform quality requires determination, resources and policy synchronization. If the roadmap for 2026 - 2035 is implemented correctly as oriented, Vietnam can move closer to international standards, so that every patient, no matter where they are, can receive care with the criteria of "safe - dedicated - quality".
In particular, according to the report of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, in the period of 2020 - 2025, technical standardization, updating treatment regimens, professional instructions, and diagnostic and treatment processes will be widely implemented: Nearly 5,000 medical techniques in 28 specialties have been accepted - a big step forward to help standardize expertise and reduce the gap between facilities.
In addition, the Ministry of Health and the Department are preparing to build a new set of hospital quality standards, inheriting the results of the past 10 years, but approaching international standards, suitable in the context of Vietnam, with a clear implementation roadmap for hospitals to sustainably upgrade quality. The goal is to achieve high-quality, safe, transparent hospitals by 2026 - 2035, with patients as the center.
83 criteria for evaluating hospital quality
The set of hospital quality criteria includes 83 criteria divided into 5 groups, aiming to comprehensively evaluate healthcare activities. Group A (19 criteria) focuses on the "patent-oriented" factor, including medical examination and treatment procedures, patient room conditions, hygiene, cost transparency and patient satisfaction. Group B (14 criteria) evaluates medical human resources such as quantity, qualifications, medical ethics, continuous training and working environment. Group C (about 35 - 38 criteria) is directly related to professional activities including infection control, testing, pharmacy, medical records, application of information technology and patient safety. Group D requires hospitals to maintain a system of continuous quality improvement through monitoring, evaluation and standardization of processes. Finally, group E is the specialized criteria for specific hospitals. Each criterion is scored on a scale of 1 - 5, from the minimum to the best, aiming to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment, ensure safety and enhance patient experience.
Recently, the Ministry of Health has organized many inspection and quality assessment teams of hospitals across the country. According to experts, evaluating the quality of hospitals plays an important role in the selection of patients. Hospital quality is the basis for calculating hospital fees and is the choice of insurance companies. Assessing the achievements and limitations will help the hospital improve to serve patients better...
Hospitals strive to standardize quality, aiming for independent inspection
For private hospitals, a set of general assessment criteria is very necessary. According to MSc. Dr. Nguyen Nam Anh - Vice Chairman of the Board of Members of Minh Anh International General Hospital, the hospital is currently assessing the quality according to 83 hospital quality management criteria of the Ministry of Health. This is a set of foundational criteria applied consistently nationwide. The hospital is also monitoring the draft set of basic hospital quality standards being developed by the health sector.
In addition, the Hospital also refers to international standards such as JCI, ACI, CHS of Australia to develop appropriate internal regulations. However, according to Dr. Nam Anh, these standards are currently only internal and have not been independently assessed from the outside.
We are considering registering for international inspection to get a more objective and transparent assessment, he said.
From a management perspective, Dr. Nam Anh emphasized the need for a unified set of criteria, suitable for Vietnamese reality, applicable to both public and private hospitals. A clear system of criteria will help the assessment process be transparent, fair and help people have accurate information when choosing a place for medical examination and treatment. However, he noted that when publicly disclosing the scores, low-ranking hospitals can face difficulties, affecting their reputation and the number of patients. Therefore, the standardization of criteria needs to be done carefully.
Evaluating the digital platform in quality disclosure, Dr. Nam Anh said that this is an inevitable trend. The nationwide unified application will help patients easily access information, while creating positive pressure for the hospital to continuously improve. BACK thisH
