This is an application developed by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health to help emergency doctors quickly look up which hospital has the emergency medicine needed to treat patients.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, recently, a number of cases have been treated promptly thanks to the sharing of emergency drugs and antidotes in the area, such as the case of saving the lives of two patients with severe Methemoglobinemia at Trung Vuong Hospital thanks to the sharing of drugs from Children’s Hospital 1; the case of treating patients with food poisoning caused by Clostridium botulinum toxins at Children’s Hospital 2 thanks to the sharing from Cho Ray Hospital.
This shows that the need to share information about emergency drugs to serve the coordination of drugs between medical facilities is extremely necessary. Putting the emergency drug lookup application into operation to increase the connection in the coordination of drugs is also to meet the above needs.
This application has created an information system linking general and specialized hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, helping to monitor, update and coordinate emergency drugs, thereby supporting hospitals in quickly accessing necessary drugs when facing urgent emergency cases.
Drug lookup application at hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City
The software includes main functions such as updating information on emergency medicine inventory; looking up and searching for emergency medicine at medical examination and treatment facilities; monitoring and warning about emergency medicine inventory at medical examination and treatment facilities to have timely intervention measures.
Implementing data sharing on emergency medicine inventories brings many important benefits, especially in emergency situations. Hospitals can immediately look up the inventory status of emergency medicines, ensuring timely treatment and saving patients in critical situations. Doctors can also make quick decisions based on information on drug availability, and coordinate with other hospitals in case of transfer or drug sharing.
At the same time, the system helps optimize the drug management and coordination process, ensuring the quality of hospital supply operations, thereby improving treatment effectiveness for patients.
In the immediate future, from September 2024, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health will implement the update of existing emergency medicine inventory data of a number of general hospitals in the city and specialized hospitals at the city’s end-line (Obstetrics, Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases, Hematology, etc.). In the coming time, the Department will continue to expand its participation in data sharing and software use with ministries, branches and private hospitals in the area.
However, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health said that for this system to operate effectively, close cooperation from hospitals in the city is needed. Hospitals need to proactively update inventory status, share data and coordinate when necessary to ensure that all emergency cases receive prompt and complete support. At the same time, expanding the participation of ministries, branches and private hospitals also plays an important role in ensuring the supply of emergency drugs.
Ensuring timely and adequate supply of drugs, especially specialized emergency drugs, is a vital requirement for the daily emergency operations of each hospital. However, these drugs are often in low demand, infrequent, and some drugs are very expensive, making many types scarce. Making it very difficult to ensure that all types of emergency drugs are available.
Therefore, the application of quick search of emergency drugs at hospitals in the city, along with monitoring and updating emergency drug data from hospitals, and coordinating drugs in emergency situations from the Department of Health will be a practical solution to the above challenges.
In addition to deploying the emergency medicine lookup software, while waiting for the Ministry of Health to deploy the model of rare and emergency medicine reserves, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health will propose to the City People’s Committee to allow the construction and deployment of a number of reserve bases for emergency medicines on the list of rare medicines. The goal is to ensure the ability to respond promptly to emergency situations in the area, contributing to improving the quality of health care for the people.