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| Doctors at Long Khanh Regional General Hospital enter the patient's disease progression into the electronic medical record. Photo: Hanh Dung |
Implementing the direction of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Health , hospitals and medical centers in the province are making efforts to overcome difficulties and are determined to deploy EMR according to the set schedule.
Challenges in infrastructure, funding, and human resources
Director of Dong Nai General Hospital Ngo Duc Tuan said that since 2023, the hospital has established a Steering Committee for Digital Transformation, surveyed the current status of information technology infrastructure, assessed infrastructure surveys and adjusted infrastructure planning to meet the implementation of EMR. It is expected that in August 2025, the hospital will approve medical record forms for implementation on the EMR system and conduct training for staff. After that, it will assess information security and build an information security profile according to level 2, expected to be completed in September 2025.
However, the difficulty that Dong Nai General Hospital encountered was that the procurement procedures did not meet the progress. Some equipment for EMR implementation was out of stock or had a long ordering time. The information technology infrastructure and medical equipment at the hospital had been invested for over 10 years and could not be upgraded or expanded, the cost of reinvestment and upgrade was large, and did not meet the ability to connect to the system. Large data interconnection axes often occupied bandwidth, transmission lines, and server resources.
There are currently more than 1,800 medical examination and treatment facilities nationwide. However, to date, only 270 medical facilities have announced the completion of EMR. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health's target is for 100% of medical facilities to complete EMR before September 30, 2025.
At Thong Nhat General Hospital, according to Deputy Director in charge of the hospital Nguyen Tuong Quang, the hospital has reviewed the entire information technology system in the hospital. It is expected that in early August 2025, the hospital will conduct a trial run of EMR at the Department of Examination and Treatment on Demand, then deploy it throughout the unit. The hospital's goal in August 2025 is to complete all issues related to EMR.
The difficulties that Thong Nhat General Hospital is facing are the lack of computers in the patient rooms; some areas do not have stable Wi-Fi coverage; terminals (computers, printers) are degraded and operate slowly. In particular, the current HIS software does not fully meet the requirements prescribed by the Ministry of Health. The connection and data exchange between HIS-LIS-PACS software is not synchronized. The issue of information technology human resources, legal and professional expertise, and funding also affects the progress of EMR implementation.
The grassroots health sector is also facing some difficulties in the process of implementing EMR. At Dong Xoai Regional Medical Center, the information technology infrastructure basically meets the needs of routine medical examination and treatment. However, to implement EMR, it is necessary to upgrade the network system in some unsynchronized areas, add Wi-Fi broadcasting devices and increase bandwidth to ensure stable connections. The HIS-LIS-PACS software systems sometimes have errors, affecting the process of returning paraclinical results to patients...
Deploy multiple solutions to resolve
In fact, the implementation of EMR has liberated a lot of labor for medical staff. With EMR, medical staff will not have to spend much time and effort recording paper medical records and spend that time taking care of patients. EMR also helps optimize the management, storage, and sharing of medical information, ensuring the accuracy, connectivity, and security of people's health data...
Specialist Doctor II Le Quang Trung, Deputy Director of the Department of Health, said that EMR deployment is one of the key and important tasks of the health sector. Therefore, the Department of Health has issued a plan to deploy EMR at hospitals and medical centers with beds in the province very early. In particular, it is noted that units focus resources, prioritize regular funding sources, medical examination and treatment service sources and other legal sources of revenue to arrange for EMR deployment. At the same time, proactively coordinate with EMR service providers to lease, purchase and support EMR deployment according to the set schedule.
The leaders of the Department of Health noted that the units need to ensure network information security, network security and effective management of the unit's medical database during the implementation and operation of EMR, and ensure funding for the purchase of security equipment and network information security services for the unit.
At the Workshop on Solutions for Deploying Electronic Medical Records organized by the Ministry of Health on July 17, Mr. Hoang Van Tien, Deputy Head of the Department of Solutions and Quality Management, National Center for Health Information (under the Ministry of Health), said that in order to remove difficulties in the process of deploying EMR in medical facilities nationwide, the Ministry of Health issued Circular No. 13/2025/TT-BYT dated June 6, 2025 guiding the deployment of EMR records. The National Center for Health Information also issued Official Dispatch No. 365 guiding specific technical requirements for EMR deployment. In the coming time, the center will continue to issue technical instructions for deploying the PACS system. These documents will help standardize and simplify the process, supporting medical facilities with more legal and technical basis to implement EMR on schedule.
Hanh Dung
Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/202507/day-nhanh-tien-do-trien-khai-benh-an-dien-tu-1742f6d/
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