Mission to bring high-quality healthcare closer to people's lives

(Dan Tri) - Although aiming to develop high-quality healthcare through strong investment, hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City still find ways to allow people with different economic conditions to access their services.

In the context of increasing demand for quality medical examination and treatment, people are not only interested in treatment effectiveness but also pay attention to comprehensive medical experience.

Since the end of 2018, with the vision of becoming a prestigious, high-quality medical facility, ranked among the top private hospital systems in Ho Chi Minh City and the Southern region, Nam Sai Gon International General Hospital has gradually carried out its mission of providing good and suitable medical examination and treatment services and health care for all subjects, including people with low and middle incomes.

Dan Tri Newspaper had a conversation with Master, Doctor, CK2 Nguyen Truong Khuong, Professional Director at Nam Sai Gon International General Hospital, to learn about the special stories behind a private hospital model operating with the motto: "All for the patient!".

Recently, Nam Sai Gon International General Hospital has been highly appreciated by many people for its treatment effectiveness as well as service quality. In your opinion, what are the factors that help the hospital gain that trust?

- I am really happy to hear this, because it can be considered as the community's recognition of our Nam Saigon International General Hospital.

To create this requires many factors. First is the consistent direction of the Board of Directors, about having to build a prestigious, branded, high-quality hospital, and be in the top private hospitals in the Southern region.

Nam Sai Gon Hospital must be a place with a professional working environment, where employees are treated fairly; ensuring high spiritual and material conditions so that staff can unite and dedicate themselves wholeheartedly, in order to attract many good and dedicated doctors.

So, this core value was determined from the very beginning, when the hospital first started operating, right, doctor?

- Yes. This was determined by the Board of Directors from the beginning and determined very clearly. We even asked a joking question, if the hospital business is profitable, will the path be different?

In response, the Board of Directors affirmed that South Saigon Hospital does not prioritize revenue but focuses on developing a prestigious medical facility. Even though we have been successful in terms of revenue and finance, we will continue to persistently pursue the path of building a prestigious hospital with high professional quality.

One of the hospital’s strengths is its modern, minimally invasive treatment techniques and quick recovery times. Could you share more about the outstanding methods the hospital is implementing and how effective they are in practice?

- Endoscopic, minimally invasive, high-tech surgery has been the trend of world medicine in recent decades. At the Saigon South International General Hospital, the General Surgery Department has performed complex surgeries, such as pancreaticoduodenal resection or thyroidectomy using endoscopy, helping to maintain aesthetics and avoid scarring.

Meanwhile, our thoracic surgeons have been able to resect lungs and mediastinal tumors by endoscopy. Or in urological surgery, Nam Sai Gon has the technique of removing stones by flexible endoscope.

For neurosurgery, in the past, when operating on the spine, the patient's incision was often very long and caused them a lot of pain. But today, we have minimally invasive and precise surgical techniques with very small incisions, little bleeding or complications during surgery.

Similarly, in the Department of Orthopedics, we have minimally invasive arthroscopic shoulder and knee surgeries and bone fusion surgeries to reduce damage to healthy organs. As a result, the patient's hospital stay is shorter and recovery time is faster.

If you look at advanced medical systems in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand or Singapore, what level do you think the endoscopic treatment techniques performed by South Saigon Hospital are at?

- In short, I can confidently affirm that Nam Sai Gon Hospital has performed 90% of the modern endoscopic techniques that major hospitals in the country and the region have applied. Almost anywhere there is a technique, we have that technique.

The 90% figure is impressive. Can you share some special cases that your unit has successfully treated?

- At our hospital, every day and every week there are complicated cases that require the ingenuity, knowledge and dedication of the team.

I remember a surgery I performed about a year ago, when a foreign female patient came to the clinic because of a sore throat, occasionally spitting up blood.

Through endoscopy, I saw that the patient had a very large tumor in the larynx. This was a hemangioma, and it covered the entire larynx, making it impossible to see the two vocal cords. At that time, our hospital had never seen a case like this.

Faced with such a situation, the hospital had to mobilize collective intelligence. We had a hospital-wide consultation to come up with solutions, backups and plans to safely operate on the patient.

The difficulty with this case is that the patient has just had a heart valve replacement and is on anticoagulants. For normal people, the risk of bleeding when removing a hemangioma is already very high, and now the risk is even higher when they are on anticoagulants.

We had to delay stopping the anticoagulant for 5 days. At the same time, with this rare case - not only for the hospital but also in the world - how to perform the surgery safely was a problem. We consulted with leading experts by phone, sent images through various means to exchange with each other, and agreed on a solution.

Before the surgery, we had another meeting to assign tasks to each member of the team, to anticipate difficult situations such as blood transfusion, cardiovascular resuscitation, etc. to ensure the safety of the surgery. With such careful preparation, the surgery was successful after 2 hours of tension. The female patient returned to being a normal, healthy person.

Congratulations to you, the hospital and the patient. But from the above case, I have a question: when having to perform treatment with complex techniques and mobilizing a lot of personnel, will the treatment cost that the patient has to pay at Nam Sai Gon Hospital increase or not?

- Our hospital has had policies from the beginning, which is to serve everyone, suitable for customer segments with different incomes. We have applied the national health insurance policy as well as insurance from private companies, helping to reduce costs for patients during treatment.

And when designing a price list for a service, we also keep in mind how to meet the customer's ability while balancing finances to reinvest in the hospital.

For example, a patient whose health insurance has paid 80% will only have to pay the hospital's carefully calculated service price. This is especially beneficial for patients who need surgery such as knee or shoulder replacement. Instead of having to pay a very high price for the equipment, they have been paid 80% by health insurance, so the remaining cost is acceptable. Therefore, many people with different economic conditions can still participate in treatment at our hospital.

I often hear a common thought, that private hospitals often only focus on investing in a lot of medical services, which comes with high costs. With the medical strategy you just mentioned - providing high quality health care services, at a cost suitable for the income of the majority of patients - does it cause internal conflicts in the matter of profits?

- It was very difficult for us to decide on that development strategy. How to balance the goals, to have profit to continue operating, reinvest, and meet the needs and affordability of patients is not a simple story.

For example, when buying a machine, instead of the maximum payback period of 5 years, we design a reasonable price, suitable for people to pay, so that the payback period can be acceptable in 7-8 years. We have to discuss and debate very carefully in every stage of investment.

In addition to investing in modern equipment, the “human” factor is always the core of the medical industry. Could you share more about the team of doctors and nurses and how the hospital builds a professional, cohesive, and dedicated working environment for patients?

- This is a very good question. With the characteristics of the medical industry, good human resources are extremely important, but very scarce. From the beginning, we have had the policy of considering hospital management as truly medical human resource management.

The two pillars that the hospital has set out in human resource development are training and compensation.

Regarding compensation, we must ensure that medical staff have the right and sufficient income according to the market and have appropriate social welfare regimes, so that staff feel comfortable and confident. From there, they will work with all their heart and devote themselves to the hospital, pursuing the goal we have set: "All for the patients".

In terms of training, we advocate internal training. Every month and every year, we have new graduates upgrading from nursing college to bachelor or master of nursing; or we focus on training 1-2 specialist doctors.

We currently have 2 staff members doing research from the hospital's treatment and operation data. This is something to be very proud of for a private hospital. We also continuously update training for all staff, most recently a training course on using AI for all administrative office staff, so that professional work is faster, more concise and better.

As you mentioned, medical human resources - especially high-quality human resources - are scarce, which means that there will be competition among hospitals to attract talent. How does South Saigon Hospital attract and retain good doctors and medical staff? Can you cite your own case?

- Personally, I know Nam Sai Gon International General Hospital through friends and relatives, and we have had discussions and shared experiences with each other. The Hospital's Board of Directors affirmed that they will create conditions for me to be able to perform professional work even though I am in management.

Here, I am respected for all my contributions to construction and development advice. And as I shared above, I have chosen a place with a professional working environment, where employees are treated fairly, ensuring high levels of mental and material conditions to devote myself wholeheartedly.

You have just shared very deeply about the story of training and treatment. This question is a bit sensitive but readers will be very curious. That is, how competitive is the treatment level of Nam Sai Gon Hospital compared to other hospitals?

- Our hospital has two main compensation policies. The first is salary and benefits; the second is creating conditions for training medical staff.

Specifically, if anyone has planned to go to school, the hospital will almost completely cover the tuition and take care of them during the entire time of study. We also send doctors to study abroad with the hospital's budget. As for salary, we have a salary system based on productivity and competitive with market prices.

Surely, focusing on development in human resources and training has helped improve the quality of treatment at the hospital significantly over time, right?

- The quality of our medical examination and treatment has improved significantly. With the benefits of training, I give an example right in the Ear - Nose - Throat department, before there were many doctors who could not perform ear surgery, but after being given the opportunity to study abroad, they were able to perform surgery. Or for head or neck cancer surgery, we sent doctors to Cho Ray Hospital to study, to master this technique.

We also combine with internal training, such as department leaders or people who have studied in depth about snoring and apnea surgery will come back to share with the brothers, so that over time, others will achieve equivalent skills, thereby serving the patients best. That means good doctors will guide new people, young people, and we have a roadmap, a plan.

In the coming time, what specialized areas will Nam Sai Gon International General Hospital focus on to affirm its position in the Southern healthcare system? If you could choose 1 to 3 areas that you are passionate about, what would they be, sir?

- Currently, we are still the strongest in the Department of Surgery, especially the Department of Neurosurgery - Spine. As shared, we apply most of the endoscopic and minimally invasive techniques, with the support of very modern machines, helping the surgery to achieve very high accuracy and extremely low complication rate.

We have had summaries and reports in specialized conferences on treatment successes, including regional and world conferences.

In particular, our hospital is one of the few facilities in the country that treats snoring and sleep apnea syndrome in the most comprehensive and complete way. We also cooperate with the final specialized hospital of Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery, so that doctors and specialists can perform surgery on cases of abnormalities of the skull and face...

Regarding development orientation, we will consolidate and further promote the strengths of the General Surgery, Neurosurgery - Spine, Orthopedic Trauma departments, or the Thoracic Surgery, Urology units, and especially the indispensable Ear - Nose - Throat department.

At the same time, we also develop the Internal Medicine and Emergency Intensive Care departments to become a strong general hospital in all aspects, meeting the health care needs of the Southern community.

The last question in this program, what message do you want to send from Nam Saigon Hospital?

- We have only one message, come and feel the motto "all for the patient" of Nam Saigon Hospital!

Thank you very much!

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/su-menh-dua-y-te-chat-luong-cao-den-gan-hon-voi-cuoc-song-nguoi-dan-20251129124219342.htm