Ministry of Health of Vietnam requests tightening of quality management and patient safety

On April 24, 2024, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam issued Official Dispatch 2100/BYT-KCB regarding rectification of quality management and patient safety work, measures for medical incident prevention.

1. Ministry of Health of Vietnam requests tightening of quality management and patient safety

Recently, a few medical incidents have occurred at some medical examination and treatment facilities, affecting patients' health and the image of healthcare professionals. During the inspections and quality and patient safety improvements in 2023 and 2024, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management discovered various existing issues.

To minimize medical incidents and their risks, enhance patient safety, and improve patient satisfaction, in Official Dispatch 2100/BYT-KCB 2024, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam requires heads of units to rectify quality management and patient safety work and recommend measures for medical incident prevention as follows:

- Heads of units are responsible for seriously implementing and executing quality improvement solutions, enhancing patient safety, and avoiding the risks and medical incidents. Encourage proactive detection, classification, reporting of incidents, and periodic and irregular reporting as guided in Circular 43/2018/TT-BYT.

- Review the risks that compromise safety, classify the risks, prioritize immediate handling, and mitigate high-risk safety hazards affecting patients and healthcare workers.

- Regularly review professional and technical procedures, standardize, promptly amend, and supplement procedures, especially those that are outdated. Focus on procedures like emergency patient classification, infection control, drug management, equipment, and medical supplies management in emergency departments, intensive care units, and operating rooms to specifically identify the list of incidents that must be reported by each unit, detecting safety risks and incidents according to specific procedures, functions of departments, and specialties of hospitals.

- Enhance training on ensuring patient safety, increasing the responsibility of each healthcare worker (including new and intern staff) in detecting and voluntarily reporting medical incidents; encourage reporting risks, and do not tolerate obstructing the reporting of medical incidents at managerial positions (heads of departments/units, shift leaders, etc.); guide patients and their families to cooperate in accurately identifying and reporting medical incidents.

- Strengthen inspection, supervision, and regular reporting on the compliance with guidelines on preventing medical incidents, ensuring patient safety, and minimizing errors at the units (specific list attached in the Annex). Inspectors and supervisors are accountable for the reported results to the management levels (hospital supervision teams, Department of Health, Ministry of Health).

In summary, the Ministry of Health requires healthcare facilities to rectify quality management and ensure patient safety to minimize medical incidents and enhance patient satisfaction. Key solutions include:

- Implement measures for quality improvement, enhance patient safety, and prevent medical incidents as conformable.

- Review, classify, and promptly handle risks compromising safety, particularly high-risk dangers affecting lives...

2. Ministry of Health of Vietnam issues a list of monitoring and error prevention issues

In Section 1 of the Annex attached to Official Dispatch 2100/BYT-KCB 2024, the Ministry of Health has outlined a list of monitoring and error prevention issues as follows:

- Accurately identify patients to avoid errors in providing services.

- Prevent risks and errors from communication, information exchange; regularly inspect, supervise, and enhance the quality of medical records; implement consultation procedures according to regulations.

- Comply with the regulations on surgical and procedural safety, rigorously follow the surgical and procedural safety checklist issued in Decision 7482/QD-BYT 2018.

- Adhere to procedures and regulations on the implementation and application of new techniques and methods at the units.

- Ensure the safe use of medical equipment. Regularly review, assess the quality of medical devices and instruments, propose replacements, repairs, additions to ensure safety and efficiency.

- Prevent and control hospital-acquired infections.

- Prevent risks of fire, explosions, security breakdowns, and environment-related incidents at the hospital.

- Identify and prevent patient fall risks.

- Ensure prompt and effective provision of essential drugs, equipment, transportation, and emergency care.

- Implement electronic prescriptions, digitalize prescriptions, minimizing handwritten prescriptions, moving towards complete electronic prescriptions.

Additionally, the Ministry of Health also provides guidelines on handling incidents:

- Immediately after receiving a medical incident report, the head of the unit must assign personnel to contact, reassure the patient and relatives, and have appropriate incident resolution plans.

- Proactively contact and support healthcare workers involved in the incident, avoid subjective records, and hastily blaming individuals, missing system errors.

Respectfully!

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