Implement the progress of Electronic Medical Records, connect and exchange data between hospitals, medical examination and treatment facilities with Bach Mai Hospital.

On the afternoon of February 18, the People's Committee of Bac Giang province held a conference to listen to a report on the content of the plan to deploy electronic medical records, connecting and exchanging data between hospitals, medical examination and treatment facilities (KCB) in the province with Bach Mai Hospital. The conference was connected online with bridge points in districts, towns and cities.

Comrade Nguyen Viet Oanh - Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee attended and directed the conference. Also attending were Comrade Mai Son - Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of relevant departments, branches, and a number of public hospitals in the province.

Conference scene.

According to the report of the Department of Health, during the implementation process, regarding information technology (IT) infrastructure, the affiliated units maintained 25 servers serving the unit's HIS, LIS, PACS software, 2,416 computers, 1,658 printers in use and operating well at medical facilities; 05 units have server rooms: Provincial General Hospital, Oncology Hospital, Traditional Medicine Hospital, Bac Giang City Medical Center, Son Dong District Medical Center ; the remaining units rent cloud servers from software suppliers and have backup storage rental plans to ensure compliance with regulations when deploying electronic medical records.

Regarding HIS software, 100% of medical facilities are equipped with HIS software. To deploy electronic medical records, units have proactively upgraded and replaced hospital management software (HIS) that meets the standards for electronic medical records according to Circular 46/2018/TT-BYT, Circular 54/2017/TTBYT and guiding documents as prescribed. Up to now, the HIS software of the units has 01 unit reaching level 7 (Traditional Medicine Hospital); 04 units reaching level 6 (Hospitals: Oncology, Endocrinology, Obstetrics and Pediatrics, Luc Ngan District Medical Center); 03 units reaching level 5 (District and Town Medical Centers: Viet Yen, Son Dong, Hiep Hoa); 04 units reaching level 4 (Provincial General Hospital, Medical Centers: Luc Nam District, Lang Giang, Bac Giang City); 03 units reached level 3 (Hospitals: Rehabilitation, Pulmonary, Mental) and 02 units reached level 2 (District Health Centers: Tan Yen, Yen The). Currently, there are 03 units with advanced level electronic medical record software (Oncology Hospital, Traditional Medicine Hospital, Son Dong District Health Center), 01 basic level unit (Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital); 13 units do not have electronic medical record software.

Regarding the system connection with Bach Mai Hospital, from January 12, 2025 to February 16, 2025, the Provincial General Hospital successfully tested the data transfer of patients transferred to Bach Mai Hospital to the system for 304 cases. The implementation of data connection of the remaining hospitals in the area with Bach Mai Hospital, when patients transfer to other medical facilities after ensuring the conditions of software infrastructure, security, and safety of computer systems at the units, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.

However, during the implementation process, the health sector encountered some difficulties such as: The IT infrastructure of most units has not reached level 7 according to Circular 54/2017/TT-BYT to deploy electronic medical records. The network infrastructure is not synchronized, the speed is still low, not meeting the needs of deploying electronic medical records. The newly deployed electronic medical record software has many issues that are not suitable for reality and need to be edited a lot, many related contents are still missing, not meeting the actual process. The capacity of IT application of staff in the unit is still limited; the staff in charge of IT also holds many concurrent positions (supporting appraisal, repairing hardware systems, etc.).

Director of Provincial Oncology Hospital Nguyen Danh Song delivered a speech.

Speaking at the conference, representatives of leaders of hospitals and health centers in districts, towns and cities clarified the process of implementing electronic medical records, connecting and exchanging data between hospitals and Bach Mai Hospital. Discussing the difficulties in the implementation process, hospitals said that the funding to support IT infrastructure of the units is still limited; the price of IT products is difficult to determine and quantify, so it is difficult to make estimates. Some contractors when winning the bid have not met the requirements, the software or infrastructure does not meet actual needs; the support time or the lack of timely response when the software has problems, disrupting the operations of hospitals... The Department of Health proposed that the Provincial People's Committee pay attention to allocating funds to upgrade software, purchase IT infrastructure to deploy electronic medical records in 2025. Allow the development of the Project on Development and Application of IT in the Health Sector of Bac Giang Province, period 2026-2030. The provincial police support the health sector to contact Department C06 - Ministry of Public Security to get support for data connection with facilities that have completed security and safety checks. The People's Committees of districts, towns and cities allocate funds for local health centers to complete and upgrade the implementation of electronic medical records, ensuring that 100% of units successfully deploy electronic medical records in 2025.

Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Mai Son spoke at the conference.

Speaking at the conference, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Mai Son clarified a number of proposals from the Department of Health. He said that the province will pay attention to allocating funds to upgrade software and purchase IT infrastructure to deploy electronic medical records in 2025. Allowing the development of a Project on IT Development and Application in the Health Sector of Bac Giang Province, period 2026-2030.

The Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the Provincial Police to focus on human resources and means to review security systems and conditions on network security of the health sector (to be completed in February 2025); districts, towns and cities shall allocate funds for local health centers to complete and upgrade the implementation of electronic medical records.

He requested that immediately after the conference, the Department of Health develop a detailed plan to implement the task, completing the connection with Bach Mai Hospital no later than March 15, 2025. During the implementation process, the Department of Health invited hospital leaders to hold workshops to have plans, solutions for synchronous and effective implementation, according to the set roadmap.

The Department of Information and Communications supports hospitals in the process of implementing procedures for investing in IT infrastructure and software, and sends documents to medical facilities. When upgrading this software, some contents must be noted to integrate and connect data between hospitals.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Viet Oanh delivered a concluding speech at the conference.

Concluding the conference, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Viet Oanh said that Bac Giang is one of the localities selected to pilot the implementation of Electronic Medical Records, so this is an extremely important task, contributing to improving the quality of health care, optimizing the management and operation process of the health system, and at the same time aiming at the goal of building a modern digital health system; as a basis for deploying connection and data exchange between the Provincial General Hospital and medical examination and treatment facilities in the province with Bach Mai Hospital and Central-level hospitals, creating a breakthrough in digital transformation in the health sector in the province.

To effectively implement this task, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested sectors and localities to properly implement the progress of Electronic Medical Records of health sector units; determine the list of tasks, implementation roadmap, and assign specific responsibilities to provincial and district levels to speed up the progress of implementing tasks and projects in the health sector; for the bidding list, implement according to regulations.

Hospitals regularly organize exchanges and learn from the experiences of hospitals that have previously implemented this content. The Department of Health urges, directs, inspects, and supervises health sector units during the implementation process, and reports to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee every 2 weeks on the results of this content. At the same time, coordinate with sectors to have plans, strategies, and solutions for synchronous implementation in the province to ensure the set roadmap./.

Dieu Hoa

Source: https://bacgiang.gov.vn/chi-tiet-tin-tuc/-/asset_publisher/St1DaeZNsp94/content/trien-khai-benh-an-ien-tu-ket-noi-lien-thong-du-data-giua-cac-benh-vien-co-so-kham-chua-benh-tren-ia-ban-tinh-voi-benh-vien-bach-mai