Dong Nai accelerates digital transformation in healthcare

Hospitals throughout the province are ramping up the application of information technology (IT) to standardize processes for registering for medical examinations and treatment, and cashless payment of hospital fees.

Residents register for medical examinations using a smart kiosk at Dong Nai Dermatology Hospital. Photo: Hanh Dung

These efforts aim to build smart hospitals and enhance patient satisfaction when accessing healthcare services.

 Building paperless hospitals

Every day, Dong Nai General Hospital provides outpatient examination and treatment for between 3,000 and 4,000 patients and inpatient treatment for about 1,000 patients. To shorten the time required to register for medical examinations, the hospital offers several registration methods, including chip-embedded citizen ID card registration, medical examination card (One Card) registration, or counter registration.

According to Dr. Le Thi Phuong Tram, Level II Specialist, Deputy Director of Dong Nai General Hospital, the hospital plans to implement biometric registration for medical examinations and treatment. At that time, patients will only need to use facial recognition integrated with their chip-embedded citizen ID card and level 2 health insurance data to complete medical examination procedures. After completing the registration, the entire process of examination, diagnosis, and prescription by the doctor will be carried out on the hospital information system (HIS) software. All orders for medication, tests, diagnostic imaging, and paraclinical services will be updated and stored directly on this system.

In addition, Dong Nai General Hospital is developing smart software integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) to support doctors, particularly in diagnostic imaging. In the future, the hospital will gradually implement not printing diagnostic imaging films, but instead sending results to patients via a link on their phones, which will also be stored on the hospital's data system.

Similarly, once the laboratory information system (LIS) is complete, test results will be returned to patients via a link or a scanned copy sent to their phones, replacing the current paper printouts.

For inpatients, Dong Nai General Hospital has implemented electronic medical records. "During the transition phase, some content still needs to use both electronic and paper records in parallel, as some procedures, such as patient and family signatures or commitment forms, have not been fully integrated into the software system. However, the hospital is gradually researching solutions to integrate electronic signatures and confirmations, moving towards the goal of a paperless hospital in the future," said Dr. Le Thi Phuong Tram.

For hospital fee payments, Dong Nai General Hospital offers various cashless payment methods for patients, including One Card, dynamic QR code scanning, and other electronic payment methods.

According to Dr. Le Thi Phuong Tram, all these implementation steps are part of the hospital's digital transformation roadmap, aiming to build a smart hospital model. When the system is complete, all patient examination and treatment information will be stored on the data system. When patients come for an examination, they only need to provide personal information, and the doctor can immediately access their medical record on the system.

Bringing satisfaction to patients

Recently, Dong Nai Dermatology Hospital implemented a smart medical kiosk system to support the Government's Project on Developing Data Applications on Population, Identification, and Electronic Authentication to Serve National Digital Transformation for the 2022-2025 period, with a vision to 2030.

The kiosk has main functions such as: registering for medical examinations; looking up services and medical examination costs; surveying patient satisfaction; and cashless payment of hospital fees. The kiosk can automatically read information from chip-embedded citizen ID cards or patient health insurance cards, and can use facial recognition to authenticate patient information. After confirmation, patients can choose the appropriate examination method, such as service examination or health insurance-based examination, select a specialty, doctors, and clinics as needed.

Regarding hospital fee payments, patients can choose to pay directly at the kiosk using a QR code or other electronic payment methods. The kiosk also supports looking up health insurance information, such as card validity, benefit levels, and corresponding medical examination services. After completing the examination and payment, patients can rate their satisfaction online directly on the kiosk. This initiative is an important tool for the hospital to monitor and improve service quality and enhance the patient experience.

Dr. Dao Tan Hiep, Specialist Level II and Deputy Director in charge of Dong Nai Dermatology Hospital, shared: The deployment of smart kiosks brings many practical benefits. For the residents, the system helps save time, allows proactive service selection, ensures cost transparency, and provides payment convenience. For the hospital, this is an important step in the digital transformation roadmap, reducing pressure on medical staff and optimizing reception processes and data management.

In addition to deploying the aforementioned kiosks, Dong Nai Dermatology Hospital is also continuing to invest in servers, firewalls, and other equipment to effectively implement electronic medical records as regulated by the Ministry of Health. At the same time, it is upgrading the information security system from level 2 to level 3 and deploying several other software programs to improve the efficiency of management, examination, and treatment.

Nguyen Thi Thuy Lien (residing in Trang Bom commune, Dong Nai province) said: What made her very satisfied when visiting Dong Nai Dermatology Hospital was that registering for an examination was very quick, without having to wait a long time.

As of now, 16 out of 29 medical examination and treatment facilities in the province have implemented electronic medical records. The remaining 13 facilities are continuing to implement and are expected to be completed before March 31, 2026.

By Hanh Dung – Translated by Mai Nga, Minho