Hospitals nationwide must prescribe electronically by October 1.

According to the latest regulations of the Ministry of Health, all public and private hospitals must prescribe electronic drugs before October 1, 2025, after many hospitals have delayed implementation for a long time.

Electronic Prescription Deadline

Medical examination and treatment facilities organized as hospitals must prescribe drugs electronically (electronic prescriptions) before October 1, 2025, which is one of the new contents stated in Circular 26/TT-BYT "Regulations on prescriptions and prescriptions of pharmaceuticals and biological products in outpatient treatment at medical examination and treatment facilities". The Circular takes effect from July 1, 2025.

For other medical examination and treatment facilities, electronic prescriptions must be implemented before January 1, 2026.

Electronic prescriptions eliminate the risk of confusion when reading handwritten drug names, and ensure transparency of information related to prescriptions.

PHOTO: BAO CAM

According to regulations of the Ministry of Health , electronic prescriptions created, displayed, signed, shared, and stored electronically must contain sufficient information according to regulations of the Ministry of Health and have the same legal value as paper prescriptions.

Agencies under the Ministry of Health (Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management in coordination with the Department of Science, Technology and Training...) will issue identification codes for medical examination and treatment facilities and practitioner codes for subjects under their management authority through the national prescription system.

Before issuing Circular 26 mentioned above, the Ministry of Health had stipulated that the deadline for completing electronic prescriptions with treatment facilities was June 30, 2023. However, hospitals still delayed implementation.

According to statistics from the Vietnam Medical Informatics Association, currently only about 60% of hospitals implement electronic prescriptions and national prescription linkage.

For health stations, this rate is about 80%. The private health sector (general and specialized clinics) has the lowest rate, about 20%.

The Ministry of Health has regulations on electronic prescriptions, linking prescriptions with the national prescription system to monitor the prescribing practice of each doctor, ensuring transparency and accuracy.

On each electronic prescription, the management agency will be able to retrieve detailed information about the origin of the prescription; view detailed information about each prescribing physician, practice certificate documents, operating facility, etc. Thereby ensuring that the prescriptions generated from the facility are correct, sufficient, accurate, and within the authority of the practice, as well as having a search tool to track inappropriate forms of prescription.

According to the Ministry of Health, about 85% of the more than 20,000 drugs that have been granted registration numbers for circulation in Vietnam are prescription drugs.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cac-benh-vien-tren-ca-nuoc-phai-ke-don-thuoc-dien-tu-truoc-110-185250706091644307.htm