District hospitals make breakthroughs after autonomy

Kien Xuong General Hospital invests in modern medical equipment for medical examination and treatment.

In 2017, Kien Xuong General Hospital began to implement autonomy, belonging to the autonomous unit phase 2 (self-guaranteeing regular expenses). In the early stages of implementing autonomy, the Hospital encountered many difficulties due to degraded facilities, lack of human resources, hospital fees not increasing but salaries increasing... In that context, how to attract patients, ensure salaries and income for medical staff is a difficult problem for the Hospital.

Mr. Dang Ngoc Hung, Deputy Director of Kien Xuong General Hospital shared: To overcome the difficulties, the Hospital has proposed many solutions such as improving service quality, sending staff for training to develop their expertise and qualifications; socializing, purchasing medical equipment; renovating and upgrading facilities, repairing degraded departments, rooms, and areas; recruiting more doctors (recruiting 35 more doctors in the past 2 years)... With the high determination of the Hospital's Board of Directors and the active participation of the staff, many central-level techniques have been deployed such as: spinal surgery, hip replacement, osteoporosis measurement, spleen surgery... Up to now, the Hospital has performed about 75% of the list of technical services according to the level. The number of patients coming for examination and treatment is increasing.

Before implementing autonomy, the hospital received about 250 patients/day, but on peak days the number of patients coming for examination has increased to 600 - 700 people. The number of inpatients has also increased 3 times compared to before autonomy (from 150 patients to 450 patients).

At Quynh Phu General Hospital, identifying that when implementing autonomy, they will have to face difficulties, the Hospital has focused on improving the quality of medical examination and treatment, renovating facilities, developing technical services, connecting with upper-level hospitals to consult and treat difficult and complicated cases... Thanks to that, up to now, the Hospital has performed many difficult surgeries such as: appendectomy combined with ovarian cyst removal; endoscopic removal of intact pills stuck in the esophagus... creating trust with many patients.

The province has 12 public hospitals at the district level. All hospitals are grade II hospitals, implementing phase 2 of autonomy. Like Kien Xuong General Hospital and Quynh Phu General Hospital, in the early stages of transition to autonomy, district hospitals faced many difficulties, especially in conditions of degraded facilities and equipment, a lack of medical staff, uneven quality, and a lack of highly skilled doctors.

In addition, the implementation of the health insurance medical examination and treatment route has increased competition among medical units; the complicated and prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, drug shortages occurred at some points... Turning difficulties into opportunities, district-level hospitals in the province have constantly innovated and improved quality to attract patients for examination and treatment. The most obvious thing that can be seen at the hospitals today is the change in the appearance of facilities, reception style, patient service attitude and modern medical equipment investment. The quality of human resources is increasingly improved. In addition, hospitals also focus on promoting the application of information technology and digital transformation. Thanks to that, medical examination and treatment at district-level hospitals have improved after a period of autonomy and increasingly affirmed their role and trust with patients, contributing to the work of medical facilities in the province in taking good care of people's health.

Instead of relying on the state budget, autonomy has forced hospitals to seek new sources of revenue and improve the efficiency of their operations. Despite many difficulties, autonomy also opens up opportunities to create important turning points for innovation, improve the quality of medical examination and treatment and increase fair competition among hospitals, especially in the context of connecting medical examination and treatment under health insurance. More significantly, autonomy has helped patients access quality medical services right at their localities, with more choices in examination and treatment.