The full cost of tonsillectomy at Children’s hospital 1 in 2019

Objective: Determine full cost of tonsillectomy at Children’s Hospital 1 in 2019. Methods: Coss–sectional descriptive study 304 tonsillectomy children at Children’s Hospital 1 in 2019. Results: The study results showed that the cost of tonsillectomy (excluding consultation fees and pre-operation tests) depend on surgery devices. The average cost of cautery tonsillectomy was 1,740, 869 VND (68% direct cost, 32% indirect cost), of the coblator tonsillectomy was 3,610,031 VND 84.58% direct cost, 15.46% indirect cost), and of the plasma peak tonsillectomy one was 3,600,124 VND (84.54% direct cost, 15.46% indirect cost). In 3 surgery methods, the percentage’s cost of drugs, medical disposible items, and operation team were the largest share in direct costs; in indirect costs, the percentage of human management was the highest proportion, followed by the percentage of facility maintenance cost, and the percentage of other regular expenses cost was very low. Conclusion: The average cost of cautery tonsillectomy was 1,740, 869 VND, of the coblator tonsillectomy was 3,610,031 VND, and of the plasma peak tonsillectomy one was 3,600,124 VND.This cost is higher than the current hospital fee the patient or the health insurance paid. This implies a mismatch between input costs and hospital rates. Key words: Tonsillectomy cost, Children’s Hospital 1, cautery, Coblator, Plasma Peak Blade.

Students who are both victims and perpetrators of physical violence at a private high school in rural Northern Vietnam: Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlates

Backgrounds: Physical violence in schools is a fairly common problem in Vietnam. However, current studies pay little attention to violence in private schools. Objectives: The study aims to estimate the prevalence and related sociodemographic factors of school physical violence among students at Hiep Hoa 5 private high school in Bac Giang province in Northern Vietnam. Methods: This was a school-based cross-sectional survey using a random sample technique with a multistage process from April to June 2019. Main findings: 412 students participated in the study, and the results indicated that 55/412 (13.3%) students were both perpetrators and victims of school violence. While 16.7% of students performed physical violence, 27.9% of students suffered physical violence by other students in the past six months. Experiencing physical violence was associated with sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, grade, exposure to physical violence in the media, time playing action games and witnessing violent events in the living place... Conclusions: More than 13% of students are perpetrators and victims of physical violence by their peers at a rural private high school. This prevalence is significantly correlated with individual factors. The results suggest that a greater focus on young people's educational activities should be provided to direct their development, including preventing physical violence. Keywords: Physical violence, high school students, perpetrators and victims.

Inpatients’ experience and the associated factors: A cross-sectional study at Lung hospital, Son La, in 2020

Objectives: Medical facilities with an autonomous tendency always try to serve positive and pleasant experiences to improve the brand name, increase patient satisfaction and loyalty. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 245 inpatients at Lung Hospital in Son La province in 2020. To describe the current situation of the inpatient's experience at Lung Hospital in Son La province by 2020 and its related factors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 245 inpatients at Son La Lung Hospital Results: The study showed that the total score of inpatients’ experience ranged from 22 points to 57 points and the mean of it was 39.7 (6.13) points. Subject's experience scores were divided into 2 groups, the satisfied group accounted for 32.7% and the percentage of the unsatisfied group was 67.3%. As compared to men, a higher total score of women was (OR: 1.134; 95% CI: 0.284-0.997). The urban area group’s score was 1,190 times higher than that of those who live in rural and mountainous areas (95% CI: 1,010 - 1,400). The middle-income group had more positive experience than the low-income group (OR: 1.180; 95% CI: 1.010 - 1.370). Conclusions: Our research showed that gender, living area and economic condition affected the total score of inpatients’ experience at the Lung hospital. Keywords: Patient experiences, inpatient treatment, hospital, associated factors

Job satisfaction and its associated factors of preventive medicine workers in northern Vietnam

Objective: To access job satisfaction and its associated factors of preventive medicine workers in Vietnam. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a purposive convenience sample of 12 preventive medicine centers in three provinces of northern Vietnam. Overall, 400 preventive medicine staff were invited to participate, and a response rate of 95.7% was percieved (153 from three provincial centers and 230 from nine district centers). All eligible participants completed the six-point response and validated questionnaire, which included questions relating to general information (basic demographics and social circumstances), job satisfaction. The job satisfaction measure produced scores for individual facets and overall job satisfaction (scored as continuous variables). Result: Bivariate analyses showed that satisfaction with pay and benefits had the lowest mean score (Mean: 3.81, SD: 0.76), satisfaction with the nature of the job had the highest mean score (Mean: 4.81, SD: 0.56), while the mean score of overall job satisfaction was 4.36, SD: 0.50. Bivariate analysis showed that personal factors were significantly associated with the facets of job satisfaction and overall job satisfaction. However, these associations varied across facets. Satisfaction with pay and benefits was significantly associated with six personal factors, including age, marital status, number of children, having a second job, tenure at the current job, and length of employment at the current center, while no personal factors were significantly associated with satisfaction with community support. Conclusion: The findings regarding the factors that appear to influence satisfaction could be useful to help management at preventive medicine centers and policy makers design programs to improve morale and commitment among these workers. Addressing the aspects of job satisfaction that were found to have the lowest scores may help the preventive medicine system to retain staff. Keywords: Health worker, preventive medicine, job satisfaction, personal factors, Vietnam

Quality of periodic health examination service for employees and associated factors at the New Port Medical Center, Ho Chi Minh city in 2020

Objectives: A periodic health examination helps people to evaluate the overall health status, so it is of the utmost importance to each individual, including employees. At Saigon Newport Corporation, employees have to do strenuous, hazardous, and dangerous works, so periodic health examination is necessary. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 436 employees to measure their perception of the periodic health examination service quality via the SERVPERF scale and associated factors at the New Port Medical Center, Ho Chi Minh City, 2020. Results: Research results indicated that 78% of employees have a good assessment of the quality of periodic health examination, in which reliability was 79.6%, assurance was 79.8%, which were also the least. Conclusions: Gender, level of education, and sector of employment were related to the employees’ perception of the periodic health examination service. Keywords: Periodic health examination, employee, SERVPERF, New Port Medical Center, Saigon Newport Corporation.

Situation of microbiological contamination in bottled drinking water products and some influencing factors in Hau Giang province in 2020

Background: Bottled drinking water has become popular for consumption by customers. Bottled drinking water with pathogenic microbiological contamination is a public health concern. This study aimed to describe the current situation of microbiological contamination in bottled drinking water products, food safety conditions and some influencing factors in production facilities in Hau Giang province in 2020. Methods: A cross-sectional study has been conducted in 2020 using quantitative and qualitative methods. The evaluation was carried out at 54 bottled drinking water production facilities, 108 workers/owners and 54 samples collected from facilities for microbiological analysis in the province. In-depth interviews were conducted with local government officials on food safety, two owners of facilities and two workers. Results: It showed that the proportion of microbiological contamination in bottled drinking water accounted for 18.5%, of which P. aeruginosa contamination was 18.5%; and Coliform contamination was 3.7%; No drinking water samples were contaminated with E. coli. 79.6% of facilities met general food safety conditions. There were several factors affecting the proportion of microbiological contamination of bottled drinking water as follows: Bad compliance with food safety in production for the sake of profit by workers, affecting the quality of products such as trash cans without lids; No sterilization treatment before filling; Non-sterilization in filling room. Non-monitoring of UV lights for replacement; No regular cleaning of water pipes, tanks, and discharge valves; Difficulty in state management of food safety for facilities of bottled drinking water production, such as insufficient manpower, lack of equipment and funding for activities. Conclusion: The quality of bottled drinking water in Hau Giang province was not good. The important factors affecting the contaminated bottled drinking water products were identified. We recommend that: management agencies should frequently conduct sudden inspections and supervisions of facilities with no ensured food safety and strictly handle according to regulations. Owners of bottled water facilities should voluntarily comply with food safety. This study is particularly concerned with ensuring food safety conditions in the production of bottled drinking water to prevent products from microbiological contamination. Keywords: Microbiological contamination; E. coli, Coliform, P. aeruginosa; bottled drinking water; food safety conditions; Hau Giang province.

Quality of healthcare services and its related factors among inpatients in Ho Chi Minh Oncology hospital in 2020

Objective: Improving quality of healthcare services is one of a crucial issues for the current implementation and development in hospitals. Method: A cross-sectional study was applied by using the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to identify the quality of healthcare services among inpatents and associated factors in Ho Chi Minh Oncology hospital from April 2020 to August 2020. A total of 400 inpatients and 16 health staffs were selected in this study. The study tool was designed by using SERVPERF to measure the quality of healthcare services in 5 aspects (including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and sympathy) with 5-Likert-scale. Bivariate analysis was applied to identify the associated factors with the categorical dependent variable of healthcare quality, with significant level p<0.05. Result: The results demonstrated that only 26.8% of inpatients satisfied with the quality of healthcare services. In term of healthcare services quality, the assurance aspect had 70.8% of inpatients rated as satisfactory. The remaining aspects were with the lower rate, particularly sympathetic (43.5%), reliable (37.8%), responstive (32%) and tangible (31.5%). Conclusion: There was an inadequate proportion of healthcare staffs, limited training and motivation, performance assessment, lacking of supervion and support, influencing the quality of healthcare services. It is necessary to facilitate the capacity building for health staffs, implement the working performance assessment based on job positions and strengthen activities of supervision and support. Keyword: Healthcare services, healthcare quality, inpatients, SERVPERF,…

People’s access to information and the practice of COVID-19 prevention during the first lockdown period in Hanoi in april, 2020

Objectives: To describe people's access to information and the practice of COVID-19 pandemic prevention during the first lockdown in the period from 7thto 30th April. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 319 subjects through a convenient sampling procedure. Online self-administered questionnaires through social networks including Facebook, Zalo, etc were used. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data using mean, frequency and percentage. Results: The most popular information channels which people in urban and rural areas regularly accessed for COVID-19 related information were television and radio (55.6% and 72.7% respectively). The sources of information that the highest percentage of people accessed was the Government's /Ministry of Health’s SMS, followed by social media. People were most interested in searching for information about "Evolution of the epidemic COVID-19" and the least interested in the information about "Prevention according to folk beliefs and methods”. Proactive prevention practices were well implemented during the first lockdown such as "Wear a mask properly" with 99.1%, followed by "Minimize going to the street except in necessary cases" (98.8%) and "Stop non-urgent activities, work from home when needed" with 98.8%. The proportion of people who practiced "Clean the surface of objects with an antiseptic solution" was the lowest at 87.5%. Conclusion: Mass media and the Government information source are regular users to access information by respondents. Therefore, the information channel and source should be taken into account for health education in general and Covid -19 prevention in particular. Keywords: COVID-19, information, prevention.

Self-reported social support at works among nurses and associated factors. Results from a cross-sectional study in a provincial hospital in 2020

Objective: This study aimed to measure nurses' self-perceived social support and identify associated factors at one Vietnamese provincial hospital in 2020. Methods: A cross-sectional study was implemented among clinical nurses of 22 treatment wards working at the hospital for over six months. Two hundred sixty-one nurses returned the self-reported questionnaires containing the Vietnamese 22-item Job Content Questionnaire and set of questions on personal and work characteristics. Descriptive analysis (frequency, mean, standard deviation), crude analysis (t-test and ANOVA), and multivariate linear regressions were conducted to describe the social support (i.e., supervisor' and co-worker's supports) and their associations with other factors at the significant level p less than 0.05. Results: The study achieved a relatively high response rate (82.1%). Social supports, including supervisor and co-worker's supports, were 24.04, 11.89, and 12.16, respectively. Multivariate Linear regressions showed an inverse association of job demand and positive correlation of job control with both supervisor and co-workers' support among participating nurses (p<0.01). Older nurses, nurses with fewer years of work experience or fixed-term contract reported more perceived support from their superiors (p<0.05). Conclusions: Nurses with different characteristics reported dissimilar perceived levels of social supports at work. Head nurses responsible for nursing management should encourage a supportive working environment where nurses can feel comfortable asking for and receive assistance from others. In addition, appropriate training would be helpful to increase nurses' recognition and usage of available resources at work. Keywords: Social support, supervisor's support, co-worker's support, clinical nurses, provincial hospital, Vietnam

Acceptability of applying asthma action plan for asthma patients at a hospital in Hochiminh City, Vietnam: an implementation research

Objectives: The asthma management strategy at respiratory departments in Vietnam so far does not include the implementation of an asthma action plan (AAP). This study aimed to implement an AAP in the hospital and analyze the acceptability for the implementation procedures of patients, clinicians and asthma management units. Methods: The implementation consisted of 2 phases. Phase 1 was a cross-sectional design that combined quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the asthma control and analyse potential obstacles of the hospital for AAP implementation. Phase 2 was a pre-experimental design to assess the acceptability in implementing the APP. Asthma control was assessed by GINA’s criteria. Implementation strategies included interventions at both organization (issued a procedure and a guideline of consulting the AAP for patients) and individual levels (trained doctors in counseling and monitoring of AAP for patients; provided instruction leaflets of APP for patients). Results: The proportion of asthma sufficient control was 59%, partial control was 30.8%, and insufficient control was 10.2%. Most of obstacles related to asthma management and control were of health facility, such as no concrete procedures in monitoring, insufficiency of infrastructure, overload of patients. Implementation strategies of AAP in this study got the acceptability of patients, clinicians and asthma management units. Conclusion: The study showed the importance of deployment of AAP for asthma patients in Vietnam hospitals. It is essential to provide more staffs for the asthma and COPD management units, especially trained nurses. Keywords: Asthma Action Plan; implementation research; Vietnam, acceptability; asthma control.