Bach Mai Hospital currently receives an average of 6,000 to 8,000 people coming for medical examinations every day. Therefore, applying information technology to activities to shorten waiting time and improve the efficiency of medical examination and treatment is a mandatory requirement in practice.
Since November 2024, the hospital has deployed electronic medical records, two months ahead of the original plan. Thanks to that, people can pre-register for an appointment by phone, via the app, or website and choose a doctor or a specialist to see according to the most convenient schedule.
The hospital is also deploying the "Bach Mai Care" application on mobile phones so people can make an appointment before coming to the clinic, proactively manage their health records and share and consult with doctors. In addition, the hospital also deploys pre-appointment booking via the switchboard, helping patients only to arrive at the hospital 15 minutes in advance to meet the doctor for examination and diagnosis.
Associate Professor Dr Dao Xuan Co, Director of Bach Mai Hospital, said that all information on the health status, medical history, and treatment process of patients has been stored and managed online. The hospital has entered all patient data into the electronic medical record and does not have to print X-ray films when examining patients. With these steps, the hospital is expected to save nearly 100 billion VND each year.
Bach Mai Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City) have been assigned by the Ministry of Health to be the points for connecting medical data. After success, this model will be deployed to hospitals nationwide.
The Ministry of Health has issued many policies and guidelines, implemented tasks on digital transformation of healthcare and achieved important results. The administrative procedure settlement information system of the Ministry of Health has full functions according to Decree No. 61/2018/ND-CP of the Government on implementing the single window mechanism in settling administrative procedures.
The Ministry of Health has built and maintained a medical public portal, a portal for publicising prices of medical equipment, medicine prices, diagnostic biological products, medical examination and treatment prices, listed prices, bidding prices, and information on products in circulation or recalled.
In addition, the Ministry of Health has also connected 55 online public services to the National Single Window Portal to implement the national single window mechanism for administrative procedures related to the export, import, and transit of goods in the health sector; promoted the application of information technology in the management of medical examination and treatment and health insurance payment appraisal; interconnected the Department of Health and the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) agency in 63 provinces and cities; 99.5% of medical examination and treatment facilities nationwide with the appraisal system of the Vietnam Social Security.
To date, all medical examination and treatment facilities have deployed the hospital information system (HIS); most medical examination and treatment facilities have deployed the LIS test management software; many hospitals use the medical picture archiving and communication system (PACS) without printing films to save time, costs, protect the environment, and create digital hospital resources; coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security and Vietnam Social Security to deploy the Health Book on the VNeID application, pilot the electronic health insurance referral form and electronic re-examination appointment form on the VNeID application before deploying it nationwide.
In 2025, the Ministry will continue to complete the legal framework to facilitate and overcome institutional bottlenecks for digital transformation of healthcare through reviewing and amending legal regulations on connection, data exploitation, and ensuring security, safety, and confidentiality in healthcare activities on digital platforms; continue to build and improve technology infrastructure to serve the provision of digital medical products and services; strengthen integration and connection between medical units and between the medical sector and ministries, branches and localities to provide multi-utility digital medical services; develop and apply artificial intelligence (AI) in medical work; build "smart hospitals" and continue to deploy electronic medical records at all medical examination and treatment facilities.
At the working session with the Ministry of Health on the recent Vietnamese Doctors' Day, General Secretary To Lam assessed that the application of technology and digitalisation of healthcare is still slow. Although the world's healthcare is rapidly shifting to smart healthcare and digitalising medical records, in Vietnam, digital transformation in healthcare still faces many barriers. Electronic medical records and telemedicine have not been widely deployed, and many hospitals still use manual paperwork.
On that basis, General Secretary To Lam emphasised that the health sector and units should increase the application of digital technology in management and medical examination and treatment; it is necessary to promote digital transformation in health management; deploy electronic medical records, synchronise health data between hospitals and medical facilities; increase the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data in disease diagnosis, treatment and analysis of disease trends, at the same time invest in developing software to support doctors in making treatment decisions, increase accuracy in disease diagnosis, increase the application of AI in smart diagnosis; organ transplantation; develop stem cell technology; gene therapy engineering; robotic surgery; 3D printing technology to personalise medical equipment for personalised medicine.
