HCM City hospitals use IT to regulate antibiotic use
Many hospitals in HCM City use software to monitor the prescription of antibiotics to ensure they are not abused causing bacteria to mutate to become antibiotic-resistant, a major global health problem, including in Vietnam.
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| The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in HCM City’s District 5 has since May 2016 used software that enables department chiefs to approve antibiotics prescribed by its doctors in real time (Source: bvbnd.vn) |
At Cho Ray Hospital, the use of an electronic surveillance system in 2014 has helped significantly reduce the use of antibiotics.
In 2015 only 64% of the antibiotics used in 2014 was prescribed, and the cost of antibiotics for patients came down by VND46 billion (US$2 million).
The city Department of Health encourages all hospitals to use IT to help their doctors use antibiotics properly and their chiefs monitor prescriptions.
Electronic surveillance could warn doctors prescribing multiple antibiotics that they are not needed or could have side-effects if used together, it said.
Both doctors and patients should be educated in the proper use of antibiotics to avoid resistance, it said.
The city has more than 6,000 private medical stores, and this is a major challenge to health authorities since people have the habit of self-prescribing antibiotics when ill, it said.
The pharmacies would be instructed to use IT to generate data on antibiotics so that it can monitor them, it said.
According to the World Health Organisation, antibiotic resistance can affect people of any age.
It also occurs naturally, but misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process.
A growing number of infections – such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and salmonellosis – are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used to treat them have become less effective.
