Vietnam: To use and retain electronic medical records instead of paper medical records from 2024?
Vietnam: To use and retain electronic medical records instead of paper medical records from 2024?
Pursuant to Article 20 of Circular 46/2018/TT-BYT regulating disclosure, implementation is as follows:
Road map for implementation
1. In 2019 – 2023 period:
a) Health facilities of rank I or higher shall proactively upgrade their information technology systems to develop and adopt EMRs according to regulations herein.
b) Other health facilities shall, based on their actual demand and capacity, make necessary preparations for adopting EMRs and apply EMRs upon their satisfaction of relevant requirements set forth herein.
2. In 2024 – 2028 period:
a) All health facilities nationwide are expected to apply EMRs.
b) In case other health facilities affiliated to the Ministry of Health, or another Ministry, do not yet apply EMRs, they must submit reports thereof to the Ministry of Health; health facilities under the management of Provincial Departments of Health shall submit reports to relevant Provincial Departments of Health if they do not yet apply EMRs. Such report must indicate reasons for failure to apply EMRs and the road map for applying EMRs which must be completed by December 31, 2030.
In addition, based on the guidance of Official Dispatch 5295/BYT-K2DT of 2023, there are instructions as follows:
7. For medical examination and treatment facilities: Urgently deploy electronic medical records without using paper medical records according to regulations in Circular No. 46/2018/TT-BYT dated December 28, 2018 of The Ministry of Health regulates electronic medical records; Deploying telemedicine according to regulations in Circular No. 49/2017/TT-BYT dated December 28, 2017 of the Ministry of Health regulating telemedicine activities; Deploying electronic prescriptions according to the provisions of Circular No. 27/2021/TT-BYT dated December 20, 2021 regulating electronic prescriptions and Circular No. 04/2022/TT-BYT dated December 12, 2021 7/2022 of the Ministry of Health amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 52/2017/TT-BYT dated December 29, 2017, Circular No. 18/2018/TT-BYT dated August 22, 2018 of The Minister of Health amends and supplements a number of articles of Circular No. 52/2017/TT-BYT regulating prescriptions and prescribing pharmaceutical chemicals and biological products in outpatient treatment and Circular No. 27/2021/TT-BYT dated December 20, 2021 of the Minister of Health on regulations on electronic medical records; Deploying online medical examination and treatment scheduling; Focusing on solutions to support people and patients, using chip-based citizen ID cards, biometric identification when registering and during medical examination and treatment.
Thus, according to the implementation roadmap, in the period from 2019 - 2023, the health facilities of rank I or higher shall proactively upgrade their information technology systems to develop and adopt EMRs.
Accordingly, from 2024 - 2028, all health facilities nationwide are expected to apply EMRs instead of paper medical records according to Circular 46/2018/TT-BYT.
In addition, in order to promote digital transformation and implement Project 06 at agencies and units in the health sector, medical examination and treatment facilities implement the following main contents:
- Deploy telemedicine according to regulations in Circular 49/2017/TT-BYT.
- Deploy EMRs according to regulations in Circular 27/2021/TT-BYT.
Vietnam: To use and retain electronic medical records instead of paper medical records from 2024?
What are the rules for adopting electronic medical records in Vietnam?
According to the provisions of Article 3 of Circular 46/2018/TT-BYT, an EMR is required to meet the following requirements:
- Each patient’s EMR shall be issued with the unique ID number for the purposes of management and storage at a health facility.
- An EMR is required to meet the following requirements:
+ It must contain all required information as a paper medical record.
+ It must be digitally signed by the person in charge of data entered into the EMR.
+ It must comply with provisions on protection of personal information in Section 2 Chapter II of the Law on Cyberinformation Security.
Vietnam: When will the EMRs be used?
Pursuant to Article 7 of Circular 46/2018/TT-BYT, the access to EMRs shall be subject to the permission given by the health facility’s head in the following circumstances:
- Trainees, researchers and practitioners working at a health facility may be allowed to access EMRs on the spot or make electronic copies of EMRs for the purposes of research or specialized operations;
- Representative of the supervisory authority of a health facility, investigation authorities, People’s Procuracies, courts, healthcare inspectors, insurance offices, providers of forensic examination and forensic psychiatric assessment, and lawyers may be allowed to access EMRs on the spot or make hard copies of EMRs with certification of the head of that health facility for the purpose of fulfilling their assigned duties;
- Patients or their representatives may be allowed to receive summaries of EMRs or paper medical records at their request as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 11 of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment.
A summarized EMR shall contain information fields as per the form provided in the Appendix No. 4 enclosed with the Circular No. 56/2017/TT-BYT dated December 29, 2017 of the Minister of Health.
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