Dedicated to the happiness of Vietnamese women

As the only female director of a Grade 1 hospital at the central level in Ho Chi Minh City, Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet has led Hung Vuong Hospital to constantly innovate and improve the quality of health care for women and newborns.

Journey of constant effort

The Department of Infertility, Hung Vuong Hospital is one of four public units nationwide that has achieved RTAC international standards for quality management in in vitro fertilization (IVF) since 2018 and has maintained it until now.

According to Associate Professor Tuyet, achieving RTAC standards is not only a professional achievement but also affirms the integration position of Vietnamese medicine, helping domestic and foreign patients confidently choose treatment.

Modern facilities, continuous monitoring (time-lapse) embryo culture systems and strict sterile procedures have helped the IVF success rate increase dramatically. Many new techniques have been deployed for cases of no sperm or half-developed sperm, bringing the opportunity to become parents to infertile couples who thought they were hopeless.

Thanks to the relentless efforts of the medical team, the success rate of in vitro fertilization at the hospital has increased dramatically. If in the first 10 years there were only about 500 babies born, then a decade later, that number tripled with more than 1,500 little angels crying out to the world in the boundless happiness of their families.

Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet, Director of Hung Vuong Hospital (HCMC). Photo: NVCC

For Dr. Tuyet, each patient is a humane story. She never forgets the case of a young girl who longed to be a mother but unfortunately suffered from a congenital defect, being born without a uterus. Since 1990, Vietnam has deployed IVF techniques, but cases with congenital defects like this girl still cannot become mothers. After that, Vietnam changed its policy, the Ministry of Health allowed in vitro fertilization and surrogacy for humanitarian purposes.

"When the policy changed, the girl came to Hung Vuong Hospital to realize her dream of becoming a mother. Not only did the technology advance, but the development of humane policies and laws brought happiness to women who unfortunately suffered from birth defects," Associate Professor Tuyet affirmed.

At the same time, the hospital continuously applies advanced techniques in obstetrics and gynecology such as: 3D laparoscopic surgery to treat fibroids and early-stage gynecological cancers with small incisions and quick recovery; applying artificial intelligence (AI) in cervical cancer screening, shortening the time to return results from 5-7 days to just a few minutes.

In particular, Hung Vuong Hospital is the first unit in Vietnam to establish a Breast Department, specializing in screening, diagnosing and treating breast diseases, contributing to early detection of breast cancer, reducing costs and pressure for patients.

Not only leading professional advancements, Associate Professor Tuyet is also the "flag bearer" in the most challenging stages of the medical industry.

When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, Hung Vuong Hospital became the "frontline of the frontline" in maternity care. In just a few weeks, the F0 reception area had to be expanded from 20 to 200 beds. The number of infected pregnant women increased rapidly, resulting in hundreds of newborns born to F0 mothers being forced to quarantine.

Associate Professor Tuyet performs an IVF case. Photo: NVCC

In that situation, Associate Professor Tuyet and the hospital staff boldly proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to establish the HOPE Center to temporarily care for newborns whose mothers were F0. In extremely poor conditions, the hospital team still safely cared for 259 newborns in nearly 4 months of operation.

After the pandemic, the journey of caring for newborns continues to be extended with other humanitarian initiatives. From 2023, the hospital launched a "Breast Milk Bank" - one of the largest banks in the country. Every day, the bank receives and processes about 60 liters of donated milk from healthy mothers, providing a valuable source of nutrition for hundreds of premature and low-weight babies. Thanks to that, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding at the hospital reaches more than 99.8%.

Management by "winning hearts and minds"

Not only dedicated to her profession, Associate Professor Tuyet is also respected by her colleagues for her humane yet decisive leadership style. As a leader, she pursues the management philosophy of "winning hearts and minds". When mistakes occur, the team sits together to find the root cause, distinguish between system errors and individual errors to learn from experience and adjust the process. The spirit of "no punishment" helps medical staff dare to speak the truth, dare to admit mistakes and dare to improve, forming a sustainable quality culture throughout the hospital.

From 2023, the hospital will implement performance evaluation (KPI) linked to a reward mechanism. All good initiatives, special life-saving cases or good deeds in the profession will be promptly recognized, creating motivation for dedication for the team of more than 1,400 officers and employees.

However, behind these innovations is still Associate Professor Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet's constant concern about the income and life of medical staff. Income in public hospitals is still low, while work pressure is increasingly heavy, causing the "brain drain" to the private sector to become common. "We do not hesitate to train the next generation, but it is heartbreaking when good people do not have enough motivation to stay," Dr. Tuyet shared.

According to her, there needs to be a suitable and sustainable compensation policy so that medical staff can make a living from their profession, have time to rest and do research, instead of having to work overtime to earn more income.

After more than three decades in the profession, Associate Professor Tuyet rarely has a full day off. She confided that not only herself, but all medical staff have to temporarily put aside personal matters to complete their work. On weekends, holidays, and New Year's, they still quietly stay at the hospital. For them, the two words "harmony" seem simple but are a journey of effort and sacrifice.

Although there are still many challenges, the medical team at Hung Vuong Hospital always strives to improve the quality of patient service.

As one of the first units in Ho Chi Minh City to deploy electronic medical records since 2014, the hospital has now synchronously applied electronic medical records, online medical registration, priority testing orders, cashless payments, and medical information lookup via QR codes. Thanks to that, the medical examination and treatment process has been shortened, the average waiting time has decreased from several hours to less than 60 minutes, and patient satisfaction has increased significantly.

Under the leadership of Associate Professor Tuyet, Hung Vuong Hospital has become one of the 5 units with the highest quality score in Ho Chi Minh City according to the assessment of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health for many consecutive years. Specialized departments such as Infertility, Medical Genetics, Pathology have continuously achieved international standards, affirming the position of a modern, humane and internationally integrated public hospital.

Now, what makes Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet and the Hung Vuong Hospital team most proud is that they have built a trusted medical address for all women. Regardless of their circumstances or economic conditions, they all deserve comprehensive, safe and equal reproductive health care.

Associate Professor, Doctor, Doctor Hoang Thi Diem Tuyet is one of 478 typical advanced models in the patriotic emulation movement of Ho Chi Minh City in the period of 2020 - 2025. She is also a member of the delegation of Ho Chi Minh City to attend the 11th National Patriotic Emulation Congress in December.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tan-hien-vi-hanh-phuc-cua-phu-nu-viet-18525111319114444.htm