The interconnection helps reduce waiting time, reduce the cost of medical examination and treatment for patients; prevent waste, save costs for the health insurance fund (HI) to use for HI treatment and treatment. This is also an important stepping stone towards synchronizing and interconnecting patient records and data at medical facilities nationwide and enhancing the responsibility of medical examination and treatment facilities in complying with regulations on hospital quality management.
Agree
During the ongoing National Assembly session, discussing the Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance, National Assembly delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga (Hai Duong province delegation) proposed to consider the regulation on linking the results of previous clinical examinations of medical facilities. This is the wish and aspiration of voters and the people. Agreeing with this view, National Assembly delegate Tran Thi Hoa Ry (Bac Lieu province delegation) also pointed out that if the health sector could link test results, it would save thousands of billions of VND for the health insurance fund. More importantly, it would reduce the burden on the payment of medical services for the whole society, including millions of poor, near-poor patients and ethnic minorities in difficult circumstances.
However, many opinions say that, in order to effectively implement, it is necessary to develop clear regulations on quality standards and evaluation systems, as well as coordination processes between medical facilities and health insurance fund management agencies. National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Ngoc Son (Hai Duong Provincial Delegation) said that when the connection of results is legalized in the Health Insurance Law, medical facilities must improve the quality of testing, standardize processes to meet the conditions for recognition from other facilities, promote consistency and ensure quality in the health system. This contributes to encouraging data sharing in the health system. When the connection of paraclinical results is a mandatory requirement, medical facilities may have to deploy synchronous data management systems, contributing to enhancing digital transformation, improving the ability to access and manage information for people and health workers.
Referring to this issue, National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Hoang Uyen (Long An Province Delegation) said that, in order to limit the situation of not allowing patients to be discharged on Saturdays and Sundays, the drafting committee should research and prescribe solutions to avoid waste and protect the rights of people participating in health insurance. This also contributes to increasing the efficiency and quality of medical examination and treatment, and managing people's health at the initial level. "In the past, the list of health insurance drugs issued by the Ministry of Health was not suitable for practice. To ensure fairness between people using medical services and people using health insurance, the Ministry of Health should review and evaluate the current regulations on the list of health insurance drugs. In case of any problems, they should be resolved to meet the rights of people with health insurance" - National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Hoang Uyen proposed. Regarding this content, in 2017, the Ministry of Health issued Decision No. 3148/QD-BYT promulgating the "List of tests applicable for interconnection and recognition of test results". This can be considered an important decision to allow laboratories to communicate and recognize each other's results with a specific list.
Need a "conductor" hand
It can be seen that the connection of clinical examination results between medical facilities is an issue that people have long been interested in and desired and is a goal of the health sector to improve the quality of medical examination and treatment. Associate Professor, Dr. Dao Xuan Co - Director of Bach Mai Hospital said that on average, each day, the unit receives 7 - 10 thousand outpatients and about 4 thousand inpatients. The connection of test results at Bach Mai Hospital has contributed to reducing unnecessary re-testing; shortening the average waiting time for patients from 3 hours to 1 hour. There are even tests that only take 15 minutes for patients to receive results. In addition, with some tests and clinical imaging, patients only need to scan the QR code to see the results.
Preliminary statistics of 21 hospitals applying the storage and transmission of images of diagnostic imaging services without having to print films have saved over 267 billion VND. If applied nationwide in 1,000 hospitals and 22,000 clinics, the savings will amount to thousands of billions of VND.
National Assembly Delegate Tran Thi Hoa Ry (Delegation of Bac Lieu province)
At Bach Mai Hospital, the hematology, biochemistry, and microbiology labs have all met ISO 15189 standards - high international standards and these test results are accepted abroad. Currently, the Biochemistry Department - a reference lab in the system of laboratories nationwide - is performing more than 30 testing procedures with a volume of nearly 10,000 tests per day, and is expected to deploy 38 new test categories in the near future.
Dr. Nguyen Van Thuong, Director of Duc Giang General Hospital, also said that if the connection of paraclinical results is implemented, patients will have one less test, save money, reduce the process of taking samples, reduce health damage, and save waiting time. In fact, the idea of connecting tests and diagnostic imaging has been proposed by the health sector for a long time, however, up to now, there are still many difficulties and problems that have not been resolved. To implement this issue, there is still much to discuss.
Specifically, at present, there are no specific regulations or criteria for hospitals to verify, recognize and use each other's test results. No one dares to guarantee the same test quality, because test quality is related to 4 issues: machine system, testing, people and operating procedures. Therefore, in terms of test quality criteria, there must be an independent inspection and recognition agency, and it must be transparent and clear which hospitals are connected. Or to connect, there must be an information technology system to transfer diagnostic images to each other, to ensure transparency and stability.
Therefore, according to Dr. Nguyen Van Thuong, in order for the connection of paraclinical results to be effectively implemented, there needs to be a "conductor's hand", which is the decisive participation of the Ministry of Health; in particular, an independent inspection council must be established. This means that as many medical facilities as there are in the country, that many must be inspected; regulations require that after so many years, they must be re-inspected once to ensure the quality of testing. In addition, the health sector needs to build a software system that can share data with each other.
“According to the set goal, by 2025, the test results of medical facilities nationwide will be connected. However, to connect, it is necessary to standardize well and manage quality well,” said Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Quoc Dat, Principal of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City. Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan also affirmed that to ensure the implementation of this content, there are many solutions to have a synchronous infrastructure to meet the requirements.
Nowadays, the demand for health care of the people is increasing. The problem is how to make the cost suitable, the diagnosis and treatment process standardized. Testing determines 70% in the process of diagnosis and treatment for patients. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the quality of testing and interconnectivity to have the best quality, the most suitable cost for patients.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Quoc Dat , Principal of University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City
Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/lien-thong-ket-qua-can-lam-sang-tiet-kiem-thoi-gian-chi-phi.html
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