INTRODUCTION
1. The urgency of the research
When it comes to the quality of human life, health issues are often
mentioned. Health is a state of entire physical, mental and social comfort, not
merely a condition of suffering no disease or injury. Having good health is one
of the basic human rights in any race, religion, politics or any socio-economic
condition.
Therefore, health care is one of important goals in the development
process and is placed in a high position: "Health is the most precious human
resource, one of the basic requirements for people to live happily, and an
important factor in economic, cultural, social and country-defense
development”.
Human health is influenced by many factors such as the natural
environment (soil, water, air, climate), social environment (culture, education,
labor, studying), biological condition and genetics; individuals’ awareness of
taking care of their own health (physical training, personal hygiene, diet and
living habits) and, especially, medical activities. In order to have good health, it
is crucial to prevent disease proactively and positively, practice food hygiene
and safety projects, enforce labor, school, and environmental sanitation,
periodic health examination, expanded program on Immunization, quarantine,
disease prevention, and only sick people and accident victims will come to
health agencies to get first aid, medical examination, treatment, and functional
rehabilitation depending on their health status and injuries. It can be said that
health and medicine have a close and organic relationship.
In the development process, depending on political institutions and
socio-economic condition, each government has its own direction to develop
national health, such as issuing strategies, policies and using government
management tools to intervene, regulate, support medical activities as well as
control health service quality, so as to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of
government management and the rational use of the budget invested in health.
Also, it is essential to help citizens easily access good quality health services,
meeting the increasing health care needs, in order to contribute to social equity
and security.
In developed countries such as Northern Europe countries (welfare
state), United States of America, England, France, Japan, Korea, etc., health
service provision, in general, and medical examination and treatment services,
in particular, are noticed to invest for development. The government
management of providing health care services is quite complete, from the legal
framework to the government management apparatus, to the support, inspection
and supervision tools, ensuring health care services provided in compliance
with the law and quality assurance. New quality management methods are
continuously applied by hospitals, such as comprehensive quality management,
ISO quality management, JCI hospital quality assessment, etc., therefore the
quality and effectiveness of medical examination and treatment are maintained
and constantly improved, satisfying the patients.
In the past 20 years, Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand,
Malaysia have had policies to manage the health care services quality through
legal instruments and national quality improvement programs; the application
of ISO and JCI quality management has also been implemented and promoted
by health facilities. Numerous hospitals have built and maintained the "good
quality hospital" services admitted by the region and the world, meeting the
demand and attracting citizens to seek medical treatment.
In our country, during the Renovation period, especially since the Law
on Examination and Treatment was issued and took effect from January 1,
2011, it made a significant milestone in management activities as well as in
health care services supply. With the goals of placing patients at the center of
health care, ensuring the safety of patients, implementing medical examination
and treatment publicly, fairly and effectively, encouraging the application of
hospital quality management standards in health facilities; Health care, in
general, and medical treatment, in particular, have experienced a huge
innovation and amelioration. The system of policies and laws on medical
examination and treatment continues to be improved; The government hospital
system is concerned to invest to upgrade both facilities, equipment, and quality
of human resources; The health care expertise of hospitals has been gradually
strengthened, contributing to the health care service quality development,
satisfying the patients.
However, the work of medical examination and treatment in the past has
suffered from shortcomings and backwardness, facing difficulties and
challenges:
First, whilst the health care service demand of citizens is rising both in
quantity and quality, the capacity to provide medical examination and treatment
services of health facilities is still limited, not yet met the service scope and
quality. Currently, disease patterns in Vietnam are increasingly diverse and
