Brian Jeffrey
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced that 2024 will be a pivotal year as it implements new standards for the data used in evaluating and reimbursing health service costs under health insurance.
These updated data guidelines replace older standards that had been in place since 2017, which the MOH deemed inadequate for current digital transformation needs.
Following over a year of testing, the new standards were officially adopted on July 1. Since then, 12,485 healthcare facilities across the country have successfully linked and transmitted medical data to the social insurance agency, resulting in over 81 million records compliant with these standards.
An official from the Health Insurance Department revealed that the ministry has begun integrating health insurance referral documents and appointment slips into the National Electronic Identification app VNeID, as part of Government Project 06.
Each year, healthcare facilities handle approximately 170 million outpatient visits and treat 17 million patients. The Vietnam Social Insurance reports that over 1.5 million health insurance referrals and nearly 5 million electronic follow-up slips have been submitted through the social insurance data portal. Of these, approximately 600,000 referrals and 2.1 million follow-up slips have been digitized and incorporated into the National Population Data Center—C06 managed by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), appearing on the VNeID app.
The MOH emphasizes that electronic referrals and follow-up slips enhance transparency, simplify administrative tasks, and reduce the potential for fraud.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are seen as foundational to the digital transformation of healthcare. Latest MOH data shows that as of October 2024, Vietnam has 1,645 hospitals, including 384 private institutions.
Provincial hospitals need to invest an average of over VND10 billion to establish EMR systems, with larger hospitals like Bach Mai and Viet Duc requiring significantly higher investments.
According to MOH’s Circular 46/2018, all grade-1 hospitals were supposed to implement EMR by the end of 2023, but only about 100 hospitals, including over 30 grade-1 hospitals, have reported using it. The majority are provincial and district hospitals.
Phu Tho and Quang Ninh lead the country in the number of hospitals utilizing EMR.
“The numbers are not as high as anticipated,” stated the MOH during a recent workshop focused on EMR implementation guidelines.
Out of 34 central hospitals under the MOH’s oversight, primarily grade-1 or higher, very few have fully transitioned to EMR from paper records.
On December 19, the National Dermatology Hospital became the first in the dermatology sector to be recognized for deploying EMR.
Currently, MOH oversees five specialized hospitals (Bach Mai, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, Cho Ray, Thai Nguyen Central Hospital, and Hue Central Hospital), with only Bach Mai officially utilizing EMR since November 1, 2024.
Dao Xuan Co, the director of Bach Mai Hospital, expressed commitment during a conference concerning 2025 objectives to promote the ‘Digital Transformation Literacy Campaign.’
During the EMR system launch at Bach Mai Hospital on November 1, MOH Minister Dao Hong Lan highlighted that if the largest general hospital can effectively implement EMR, other facilities can achieve the same.
As part of enhancing the digital healthcare framework, the MOH will also focus on developing IT applications, with emphasis on non-cash payment methods, EMR, lab interoperability, and the deployment of the Electronic Health Book on the VNeID platform.
Furthermore, the ministry aims to robustly implement Government Project 06, which focuses on digital technology integration in healthcare to create a smart health system comprising smart disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and management.
MOH also seeks to improve the quality of online public services, ensuring that citizen and business identification and authentication processes are efficient for seamless online service access across all MOH platforms.
