To keep provincial area safe, protect people's health

During the past two years, especially over the first 6 months of 2021, the Covid-19 continued to surge in Binh Duong. However, the province proactively issued guiding documents for each stage of disease prevention and control, strived to preserve safety. So far, the outbreak has been basically controlled in general. Provincial health authority also continued to develop the application of IT in medical examination and treatment, improving people's health.

Over the first 6 months of 2021, the province persistently implemented the "dual goal" of disease prevention control and economic development. In photo: Medical staff in the province take samples for Covid-19 testing of about 3,000 residents at Hoa Loi social housing area, Hoa Phu ward, Thu Dau Mot city.

Efforts made to control the disease

Binh Duong had the first community positive case of Covid-19 on January 31st 2021 and so far has recorded 772 cases. Particularly in this fourth outbreak (from May 30), the province recorded 766 cases. Most of outbreak sources in the community have been controlled. From June 14, the spreading has occurred at a number of companies interspersed with lodging houses for workers; but with continuous efforts, initiative, flexibility and creativity, the province has performed many solutions to prevent disease from spreading into industrial zones.

Nguyen Loc Ha, Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee, said that during the fourth wave, the province issued many guiding documents to catch up with happenings of the epidemic. In particular, Provincial People's Committee issued Directive No. 10/CT-UBND on the basis of Directives No. 15 and 16 of the Prime Minister. With this directive, the province has promoted the role of leadership, direction, coordination, guidance and support of superiors, while encouraging the creativity and initiative of subordinates to solve difficulties and problems arise in practice. The province's motto for disease prevention control has been disseminated thoroughly, that is "4 things on the spot" to avoid being passive,  embarrassed, and respond to each epidemic situation. The province also strictly implemented the principle of "5K + vaccines" and applied IT closely and widely, both doing and gradually improving.

With the fighting spirit against the pandemic, the province persistently implemented "dual goal", from time to time, and gave priority to the task of anti-epidemic or economic development. Besides, the province also focused on assignment and decentralization, better defined the roles of each level, each branch, individualized responsibilities, thus the leadership and organizations of disease prevention control overcame the initial confusion. Following directions of the Government and Ministry of Health, the province has seriously changed the anti-epidemic state with the highest strategies, tightened the management of localities applying Directives 15, 16, and infected areas.

Currently, the province is focusing on implementing strategic solutions to better control the outbreak in industrial parks and companies. Provincial People's Committee assigned Management Board of Provincial Industrial Parks, People's Committees of districts, towns and cities, and relevant agencies to immediately instruct businesses inside and outside industrial zones to strictly implement disease prevention control plans when there is an infected case at production, business establishments, industrial parks; strengthen solutions to manage information of company's employees to scan QR codes.

Application of information technology in medical examination and treatment

According to many experts, the Covid-19 epidemic is also a stimulus to the digital transformation process in the healthcare industry. Therefore, the province advocates the application of information technology (IT) in building a smart healthcare. Currently, all agencies in the province employ medical declaration applications via QR codes; video conferences is also favored. Meanwhile, medical units at the provincial and district levels are also equipped with basic and advanced IT infrastructure.

Huynh Thanh Ha, Deputy Director of provincial Department of Health, said benefits of technology, IT application in disease diagnosis helped minimize human errors, increase accuracy and better manage patients. Through the IT platform, lower-level medical facilities receive periodic and irregular professional support from provincial and central hospitals. “Up to the present time, both public and non-public units have connected their medical treatment database with Ministry of Health and Social Insurance of Vietnam to conduct the assessment and payment of medical expenses and health insurance. Almost all hospitals and clinics have medical treatment management software. The insurance payment has been pushed to data web portals, so when a patient enters a hospital for health examination, the data is immediately pushed to the portal of Ministry of Health", said Ha.

Actual records at Medical Centers of Dau Tieng District, Ben Cat Town, and Thu Dau Mot City show that these units have applied VNPT-HIS software at 84 health stations of communes and wards. Seven medical stations in Di An City have used Viettel's HIS software since Jan 2020. In addition, the health sector also uses some professional softwares in finance and accounting, personnel organization, and practice management.

The branch also put pharmacy management software into use; coordinate with IT Department, Ministry of Health to complete the digital map data of medical facilities in the province; develop a plan to apply IT in the health branch for the period 2021-2025 and submit it to Provincial People's Committee for approval. Provincial General Hospital is implementing the IT Project phase 2. At the request of Ministry of Health, Binh Duong set up a network to connect, share data, exchange medical expertise and prepare for the implementation of electronic signatures in medical field.

The province's efforts to apply IT and strategic solutions would create momentum to control epidemic outbreaks as soon as possible and take better care of people's health.

Over the first 6 months of 2021, in the province, dangerous infectious diseases continued to increase over the same period last year. In particular, dengue fever recorded 1,954 cases, an increase of 805 cases over the same period last year; hand, foot and mouth disease had 1,037 cases, an increase of 706 cases. Binh Duong advocated a combination of Covid-19 prevention control with other diseases (dengue fever, hand, foot and mouth disease, measles, rubella, diphtheria, whooping cough). Department of Health directed Provincial Center for Disease Control to coordinate with districts, towns and cities to actively investigate cases, identify daily outbreaks, especially supervise the implementation of measures of dengue fever prevention and control in educational institutions and dormitories. The health authority recommends that each person and each family should actively prevent diseases by simple measures, such as preventing mosquito bites, killing mosquitoes, and killing larvae at home and where they live.

Reported by Kim Ha - Translated by Ngoc Huynh