Healthcare digitisation lacks coherence

Over 13,000 health institutions have been equipped with new technology to operate under this system. However, connectivity remains a great challenge to the effectiveness of the network.

This is an outline of the healthcare expenses for patient Bành Thị Hương at Quoc Oai District Hospital in Hanoi. This display allows patients access to all information regarding tests, medicines and their prices and the percentage of expenses covered by social insurance. Social insurance agencies can simultaneously access the system too.

"We are able to closely monitor overlapping expenses to prevent unnecessary costs for patients. The new system also allows us to tighten control of medicines and healthcare quality from the first health check", said Pham Luong Son - Deputy Director of Vietnam Social Insurance.

However, a lack of coherence between systems at health institutions has resulted in low connectivity in the transaction process.

"Because different hospitals use different software, we find it hard to connect with each other for transaction purposes. It would help greatly if we used compatible software", said Do Van Vy - Director, Quoc Oai Hospital, Hanoi.

Some have raised questions about the accuracy of the system. Some doubt that the system can fully manifest the health record of the patient.

"There remain many transaction errors at different hospitals for one patient. We even have to manually call other hospitals to clarify information. Inconsistency in the software under the new system has made it difficult to match information", said Assoc. Professor Tran Ngoc Son - Deputy Director of Saint Paul Hospital, Hanoi.

There are over 600 different types of software currently operated at health institutions that do not meet the standard requirements. The Ministry of Health is working closely with socialinsurance authorities to establish a coherent system to push towards the 100% digital transaction target.