The 2023 Patient Safety Week took place from September 25^th – 29^th, and garnered significant response and participation from patients, relatives, and staff at FV Hospital. The event left a lasting impression, particularly the memorable participant engagement to this year’s theme.

Committed to “elevate the voice of patients” during the treatment process

Under the theme “Engaging Patients for Patient Safety”, all the events were intended to spotlight the role patients, families, and relatives have in ensuring their safety in healthcare services.

Speaking at the opening of the event, Ms Pham Thi Thanh Mai (Chief Operation Officer) shared: “FV Hospital has developed many policies and programmes to ensure that all of our activities focus on the safety for every patient. However, this year’s event reminds us to remove any barriers and create conditions for patients to better understand and be more proactive in speaking up for their own safety during treatment.” PhD Dr Do Trong Khanh (Medical Director) and Ms Lee Poh Lian (Nursing Director) also expressed their commitment to this year’s theme on behalf of the medical team.

Ms Thanh Mai stated that FV will make more efforts to encourage patients to speak up.

Dr Khanh emphasised that doctors want to listen to opinions and questions from patients, or feedback from staff, as it forms the basis for building safe and effective treatment plans for patients. From the nursing side, Ms Lee Poh Lian affirmed that FV nurses not only comply with safety in patient care tasks at the hospital but also in home-care services providing emotional support, and physical support in the most professional and safe way.

PhD Dr Khanh (3rd from left) and Ms Lee Poh Lian (6th from left) and several members of the Board of Directors demonstrated their commitment to “patient safety”

The opening ceremony of the event witnessed many scenes of engagement and participation in the process of ensuring safety in treatment from medical staff to patients and caregivers. This demonstrated the successful start for this especially important week.

Many useful activities helped patients participate in the safe process of treatment.

During the five days, various activities were held to build channels for patients to access and understand the 2023 event theme. In addition to releasing two online publications, “Speak Up” and “Ask Me,” a quiz game with prizes at the event counter, also helped many participants understand more about “patient safety”. More excitingly, a clown provided balloon animal gifts that attracted a lot of children, as well as conveyed the event’s message to parents and paediatric patients at FV during the event.

Activities at the event counter attracted many participants.

The lunch times on September 25, 27, and 29, were dedicated to safety talk held at the Auditorium, with presentations from doctors and experts working from FV. The information revolved around the meaning of patients speaking up during treatment, the roles of managers and medical staff, and ways to help patients feel more comfortable sharing with doctors and nurses. This has helped the staff at FV better understand the approach and support patients in contributing their voice to treatment safety.

One of eight talks at the event week (In photo: MSc. Dr Nguyen Huynh Ha Thu is talking about how to connect with cancer patients during treatment).

Similar to other major events at FV, this event also received much participation in competitions organised over the past week. Accordingly, Ms Truong Thi Minh Qui (Gift Shop Supervisor) won the Facebook photo contest, while Ms Nguyen Thi Ngoc Giau (Nursing Department of Internal Medicine, East Wing) was the outstanding winner of the essay writing contest on the event topic.

During the closing ceremony, representing the event organisers, Mr Mohd Fazli Shuib (Director of Quality Management cum Head of Pharmacy) emphasised: “Today is the closing day, but our patient safety journey will continue. I hope the safety talks, activities, and especially the tools, “Speak Up” and “Ask Me,” will help us increase safety efficiency at FV.”

Mr Fazli mentioned that patient safety is an issue that requires systematic organising and synchronous participation from all sides.

Mr Fazli also thanked the Board of Directors, members of the organising team, FV staff, and especially the response of the patients because “without the patient’s participation, these commitments would have been unachievable”. This has created conditions for FV Hospital to have the opportunity to accompany patients, listen to their concerns, and respond with all of its resources.

Staff at FV are committed to the event message – “Speaking up for patient safety”

The event, “Engaging Patients for Patient Safety”, also aimed to introduce a relatively new concept to patients in Vietnam: speaking up when you need support at medical facilities, asking clarifying questions about the disease, treatment methods, and any topic that concerns you during the treatment process. The patient’s voice is considered an important factor in making treatment plans for doctors at FV.