Thứ Năm, 8 tháng 8, 2013

 Hospital issues same test results to 2,000 patients

TUOITRENEWS 


As shown on these two testing forms, the names of patients are different but the test results are the same. Tuoi Tre

Authorities are investigating an unbelievable case in which a State-owned hospital in Hanoi allegedly had around 1,000 test results issued randomly to 2,000 different patients, meaning there may be several patients with the same result.

The investigation is underway following a letter of denunciation by Hoang Thi Nguyet, a health worker at the Hoai Duc General Hospital, who accused the hospital’s director, Nguyen Tri Liem, of organizing the duplication of medical and biological test results and issuing such false results to patients.

In the letter, Nguyet said that Liem assigned inexperienced or unprofessional staff to perform tests on patients. These staffs took blood samples but they later threw them away without any testing.

They then printed numerous “test results” from some real tests that had been performed previously, and then gave such results to different patients, the whistleblower wrote in her letter.
As a consequence, thousands of patients have received false test results and many cases are “very laughable”, she said.

For example, Nguyen Duy Bong, 68, suffered from hypertension but he was issued a medical and biological test result that was identical in every detail to that issued to a 41-year-old Dinh Thi Thu, who suffered a wound in her forearm.

More notably, Nguyen Huu Nhung, an 82-year-old male patient received the same medical test results as those of a young man, Nguyen Ba Bien, 22.

In another case, the same test result was given to both Bui Van Cuong, a 3-month baby, and a 92-year-old woman, Ngo Thi Dao.

In total, there are around 1,000 test results being issued randomly to about 2,000 people who arrived at the hospital for examination and treatment but they have been deceived, Nguyet concluded.

Six health workers involved

On August 6 a working group from the Health Ministry led by Nguyen Trong Khoa, deputy head of the ministry’s Medical Examination and Treatment Department, and Nguyen Van Dung, vice director of the Hanoi Health Department, arrived at the hospital to work on the accusation.

According to initial investigations, six of the ten health workers of the Diagnostic Testing Department were involved in the scandal.

While police are investigating why they did this, these staffs admitted to police that such patients are their acquaintances who only wanted to have the tests to add them to their personal file or CV as required by their employers.

Nguyen Thi Xuyen, a member of the department, admitted that she herself issued such test results to those who only needed them to complete their application for a job or for their schools.

Vuong Kim Thanh, head of the Hoai Duc General Hospital’s Diagnostic Testing Department, confessed that her department often issued them to hospital staffs’ relatives who used the results only for completing some procedures to have them admitted to or discharged from the hospital.

However, Khoa rejected all such arguments and concluded that these health workers have committed falsification. “Their acts are unacceptable. They have issued the test result of one patient to three or four others.”

In talking with Tuoi Tre on Tuesday, Nguyen Khac Hien, director of Hanoi Department of Health said that police have seized all records and documents related to the scandal for investigation.

The hospital on Wednesday, August 7, suspended Thanh and chief test technician Phan Thi Oanh for investigation.

Embezzling insurance payouts?

Tuoi Tre reporters found that nearly all of the patients to whom the false test results were issued have been covered by health insurance.

Pham Luong Son, head of the Board for Implementation of Health Policies under the Vietnam Social Insurance Agency, commented that the only purpose of such acts was to appropriate the money to be paid by the Health Insurance Agency for tests that were actually not carried out by the hospital.

“We have requested the Hanoi Insurance Agency to halt payments for cost of tests to the hospital for the first and second quarters of this year, pending a conclusion of the police,” Son said.

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