First-grade hospitals in the country are undertaking many activities for standardisation and quality control of medical laboratories to be able to share medical test results with each other (Illustrative photo: VNA)undertaking many activities for standardisation and quality control of medical
laboratories to be able to share medical test results with each other.
Hospitals are classified into grades based on their scale, labour structure and
staff capabilities, treatment quality, facilities, and equipment.
Under a Ministry of Health roadmap, first-grade hospitals will
join central-level facilities at the end of next month in
sharing medical test results to reduce expenses for patients, who are
often required to redo all the tests when they switch hospitals.
In July last year, all 38 central-level hospitals began to share the results
among themselves.
By 2020 province-level hospitals will start doing so, and by 2025 it will
become universal.
Dr Nguyen Trong Thien, director of Da Nang C Hospital, a first-grade facility,
said his hospital had been working on its laboratory quality since 2014.
“The hospital has collaborated with the central region-based Centre for
Standarisation and of to improve the
quality of its tests. It is ready to share its with other
hospitals.”
Dr Le Hoang Oanh, deputy director of the blood transfusion centre at HCM City’s
Cho Ray Hospital, said labs also must get an external quality assessment to
ensure the reliability of their medical test results and that they have the
same quality as other hospitals in the country and abroad.
His centre had collaborated with the National Institute of Haematology and
Blood Transfusion, HCM Haematology and Blood Transfusion Hospital and the
Quality Control Center for Medical Laboratory to set up a protocol for external
assessment, he said.
“It is based on World Health Organisation guidelines,” he added.
Speaking at a review conference on sharing medical test results held at the HCM
City University of Medicine and Pharmacy on November 26, Deputy Minister of
Health Nguyen Truong Son said his ministry had instructed medical
laboratory standarisation centres around the country to quickly establish
assessment standards and criteria for labs.
Hospital labs which share medical test results must acquire ISO 15189
certification, he said.
The ministry had also ordered the centres to strengthen training to improve and
standardise the capacity of lab technicians in the country.
From this year the quality of labs is one of criteria to assess the quality of
hospitals, according to the ministry.
The country’s 1,336 hospitals did more than 528 million tests last year, half
at province-level hospitals and 22 percent at central-level ones.
“If hospitals share their test results, the number of tests will reduce
sufficiently, helping save time and money of patients,” Son said. “This will
also ease the crowding [at hospitals].”
Dr Vu Quang Huy, director of the Quality Control Centre for Medical
Laboratories under HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, said his
centre had trained hundreds of lab workers since 2014 and monitored the quality
of health facilities in the southern, central and Central Highlands regions.-VNS/VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
