Duties of on-call positions in the hospital in Vietnam

Pursuant to Article 44 of Circular 32/2023/TT-BYT guiding the duties of on-call positions in the hospital:

Duties of On-call leaders in Vietnam

- On-call leaders: Director, deputy director, dean of department, head of department who are designated by the director to participate in leadership on-call and this type of on-call practice must be authorized in writing.

- Duties of on-call leaders:

+ Check and supervise on-call shifts in the hospital.

+ Direct the resolution of difficult problems and situations that are beyond the professional capabilities of on-call subordinate staff.

+ Direct the handling of unusual security and order incidents occurring in the hospital.

+ Report to the superior body of the hospital on special and unexpected cases that occur beyond their authority.

Duties of on-call positions in the hospital in Vietnam (Internet image)

Duties of On-call clinical staff in Vietnam

- Organization of on-call clinical practice:

+ The head of on-call shift is a practitioner holding the position of dean, deputy dean, or doctor with a postgraduate degree.

+ On-call clinical doctor is a qualified practitioner who independently solves tasks and is responsible for their task solution.

+ Nurses, midwives, and medical technicians who are practitioners assigned to on-call clinical practice by the hospital director.

- Duties of the head of on-call clinical shift:

+ Manage human resources during the on-call shift.

+ Examine and order treatment for emergency cases, newly arrived patients and seriously ill patients undergoing treatment with unusual developments when the on-call clinical doctor of the department cannot resolve the issue.

+ Report and seek advice from direct leadership in cases beyond their professional capacity to handle and special cases such as suicide, epidemics, catastrophes, and mass emergencies.

+ Notify the on-call security guard and report to the on-call leaders in case of loss of security and order in the hospital.

+ Check and urge on-call positions to fulfil their duties.

- Duties of on-call doctors:

+ Receive patients coming to the emergency room.

+ Monitor and handle transferred patients.

+ Guide and urge on-call staff to fully implement instructions.

+ Assign responsibilities to each on-call member to closely monitor and promptly respond to any adverse changes in level-1 seriously-ill patients.

+ Examine patients and document medical records after each visit.

- Duties of on-call nurses, midwives, and medical technicians:

+ On-call nurses are nurses of each department who can organize inter-department nursing duties as decided by the hospital director.

+ Carry out doctor's orders and provide patient care and follow-up care.

+ Urge patients to follow hospital regulations.

+ Preserve records, medicine cabinets, and assets of the department.

+ Detect a patient with unusual developments, at risk of death, report to the on-call doctor, and record all developments in the monitoring sheet.

Duties of On-call subclinical staff in Vietnam

- Organize separate on-call practice for each department, depending on the workload in each department to arrange the appropriate number of on-call staff;

- Duties of on-call subclinical staff: perform tasks for diagnosis and treatment according to clinical instructions.

Duties of On-call logistics and administration staff in Vietnam

- On-call pharmacy and medical device staff shall ensure adequate supply of medicine and operation of medical devices to serve the on-call team;

- The on-call finance and accounting staff shall ensure the collection of hospital fees from outpatients and inpatients outside of business hours;

- The on-call IT staff shall ensure that the hospital management network system operates normally;

- On-call electricity and water staff shall ensure operation of generators when there is an unexpected power outage; repair abnormal electricity and water damage;

- On-call administration staff must ensure communication by phones and other forms of information (according to regulations of the healthcare facility);

- On-call security guards shall ensure security and order in the hospital;

- On-call drivers shall ensure that ambulances are ready to perform duty when ordered.

Duties of Out-of-hospital on-call permanent staff iin Vietnam

- In addition to the people assigned to be on call as mentioned above at the 4 permanent levels, depending on the actual circumstances of each hospital, hospital leaders can arrange on-call permanent staff outside the hospital to be ready to provide professional and administrative support when needed;

- On-call permanent staff must keep in constant contact during their on-call time and be present at the hospital when mobilized.

Mai Thanh Loi

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