Hospital referral documents, medical check-up records to go online
Hospital referral documents and appointment letters for re-examination will be integrated into the e-identification app VNeID or digital social insurance app VssID, said Tran Thi Trang, head of Health Insurance Department under the Ministry of Health.
A health worker in Bac Giang province scans a QR code on a patient's chip-based ID card to access healthcare records. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Hospital referral documents andappointment letters for re-examination will be integrated into thee-identification app VNeID or digital social insurance app VssID, said Tran ThiTrang, head of Health Insurance Department under the Ministry of Health.
In the near future, patients will only need to present one of those appswithout bringing paper records of health insurance referrals and appointmentletters
According to the Ministry of Health, social security offices and hospitalsnationwide will trial electronic health insurance referrals and health check-uprecords in April this year, looking to completely remove the need for paper.
If the trial runs smoothly, the online records will be officially appliednationwide in July.
According to Trang, going digital will have lots of practical values. It helpscreate a centralised database for analysis, statistics, and timely adjustmentof health insurance policies. It also makes the hospital referral moretransparent and simplifies administrative procedures, she said.
The online application also saves time of both patients and healthcarefacilities, limits fraud in the referral process as well as supports socialsecurity offices in health insurance assessment and payment, she said.
According to current regulations, if the patient wants to be transferred to ahigher-level hospital and enjoy health insurance with higher benefits, theymust have a transfer certificate.
Patients are allowed to be transferred from the lower level to the adjacenthigher level (from the commune level to district level, district level toprovincial level, provincial level to central level). If the adjacent higherlevel facility does not have the appropriate technique, patients will continueto be transferred to the higher level.
Many people believe that hospital transfer papers are a cumbersome andtroublesome administrative procedure.
Trang said it was impossible to remove the hospital transfer paper but thehealth ministry is studying solutions to facilitate patients.
Public health information must be digitalised with referral information to goonline to minimise nuisance for patients, she said./.
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A health worker in Bac Giang province scans a QR code on a patient's chip-based ID card to access healthcare records. (Photo: VNA) 
