Despite the Ministry of Health's proposal to apply IT in management, hospitals have proved reluctant to upgrade their services.

 Information technology encounters hospital obstacles

HCM City’s Children's Hospital 1 has a high technology office, making it easier to manage and monitor clerical work. Software can monitor prescriptions for mistakes and offer alternative drug suggestions if cheaper options are available. The software monitors patient numbers undergoing examinations and waiting lists. It can also funnel patients into different departments if one room is too busy.

At some hospitals in HCMC, the doctors can use software for prescriptions. This software will provide warnings if drugs are incompatible. Children's Hospital 1 also installed software to support treatment for poisoning, including a facility to show patients various kinds of snakes which can help identify the course of treatment.

However, information technology is not always welcomed. At Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC, they have stopped using prescription software. Patients have complained that they have to wait longer than usual.

"Normally, a doctor would have about two minutes to check a patient and write a prescription, but if the doctor has to work with the computer it'll take longer." a doctor explained.

Technical and financial difficulties are another obstacle. At the liver department of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases which is regularly over-crowded, a doctor said, "To adopt this properly, the doctor needs IT staff and the hospital can't afford it."

Vo Minh Quang, deputy head of planning department shared, "Our hospital has automated the medical test procedure to reduce waiting times. We also want to apply IT to CT, x-ray or ultrasonic testing but the equipment is old and not compatible with the software."

The biggest obstacle is changing employee awareness. "If a doctor thinks this software is not benefiting them, it'll be hard to change." a hospital's leader said.

It took two years for the Children's Hospital 1 in HCMC to successfully apply IT in their services.

 "One of the reasons for this problem is people find hard to accept new things. The bigger problem is this software makes everything more transparent. There have been some personnel changes at a hospital due to this transparency." a software expert said.

To push forward the project, the Ministry of Health has established department of information and technology at major hospitals, raising capital for an "E-clinical records and health care management system" project, and also completing research on remote health care.