Eliminating paper medical records will reduce waiting times for cancer patients.

On August 19th, K Hospital officially launched electronic medical records at its three treatment facilities. This reduces waiting times for examinations, tests, and receiving results for cancer patients, saving tens of billions of dong annually in printing and imaging costs.

According to Professor Dr. Le Van Quang, Director of K Hospital, the hospital currently has 2,400 beds across 3 facilities. In 2024, the hospital received 436,208 outpatient visits, 68,119 inpatients, 31,683 surgeries, and 262,607 MRI and CT scans, as well as 4,488 other cases related to specialized technical procedures.

On April 1st, K Hospital began piloting the electronic medical record system at its first facility. Following this, the hospital continued the pilot program at its second facility. After evaluating the successful pilot program, K Hospital reviewed and gradually addressed any emerging issues, and the electronic medical record system has now been implemented throughout the entire hospital.

Doctors at K Hospital access treatment results on the electronic medical record system.

Replacing paper medical records with electronic medical records offers numerous benefits for both patients and healthcare professionals , contributing to cost savings, increased productivity, and improved quality of medical care.

By eliminating the need to print X-rays, test results, and paper records, and avoiding the need for physical record keeping, hospitals save tens of billions of dong annually. With electronic medical records, patients experience reduced waiting times for examinations. Instead of traveling to the hospital early in the morning and waiting for a long time, cancer patients can schedule appointments online via phone or mobile app.

Electronic medical records also help to manage information more efficiently at K Hospital. All patient records are stored synchronously, allowing doctors to easily access and track medical history, thereby leading to more accurate diagnoses.

Furthermore, electronic medical records allow for data exchange between healthcare facilities, eliminating the need for patients to repeat previously performed tests. Finally, it enhances transparency in health insurance management and reduces complex administrative procedures.

To successfully implement electronic medical records, K Hospital also had to face many difficulties and challenges regarding infrastructure, equipment, and even patient habits.

K Hospital has implemented electronic medical records at 3 of its facilities.

To date, more than 300 medical facilities nationwide have announced the successful implementation of electronic medical records. According to the Ministry of Health's directive, all hospitals nationwide must complete the implementation of electronic medical records by September 30th of this year.

The country has over 1,300 medical facilities, but currently only over 300 hospitals have implemented the program. This number is still far too modest, especially with only a little over a month left until the deadline.

The reasons include the fact that many healthcare facilities still face difficulties in terms of funding, technological infrastructure, human resources, and a lack of coordinated efforts between different sectors and levels of government.

Electronic medical records are one of the important pillars in the digital transformation roadmap of the healthcare sector, contributing to improving the quality of medical examination and treatment, optimizing management, record storage and sharing of medical information, saving costs on film printing, and benefiting both patients and hospitals.

Currently, hospitals facing financial constraints have proposed that the Ministry of Health take the lead in developing a shared electronic medical record software, aiming to accelerate the implementation of electronic medical records in the healthcare sector and reduce investment costs for hospitals.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/bo-benh-an-giay-giam-thoi-gian-cho-kham-cho-benh-nhan-ung-thu-i778614/