Payment via 'dynamic QR' code is gradually becoming popular at many hospitals in Nghe An

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In Nghe An, Vinh City General Hospital is the first medical facility to implement cashless payment for medical examination and treatment services (in 2019). The first form of payment that this hospital has implemented is "Smart Medical Examination Card". Accordingly, the hospital has coordinated with the bank to issue medical examination cards to patients. The hospital accountant will collect money from the patient and deposit it into the "Smart Medical Examination Card". After using the medical examination and treatment services, the patient will be paid by swiping the card into the machine and deducting money from the card.

However, the payment method “Smart Medical Examination Card” quickly revealed its limitations: Patients could only use the card to pay for services at Vinh City General Hospital and could not use or transfer it to other places… Due to this limitation, Vinh City General Hospital has deployed many other payment methods such as POS, VNPAY, bank transfer, payment via “static QR” code.

Ms. Le Thi Hoai (38 years old, in Vinh city) came to Vinh City General Hospital for examination and treatment and commented: The hospital's implementation of cashless payment solutions for medical examination and treatment services is very civilized. Patients do not have to carry cash; avoiding the worry of losing it during the examination and treatment process. With the payment method via "static QR" code, patients only need to bring their smartphone. When the accountant confirms the payment and notifies the amount to be paid, the patient only needs to scan the QR code, enter the amount to be paid and transfer the money to the hospital account. All operations are very quick and easy.

It is known that with the QR code payment method, Vinh City General Hospital has increased the rate of non-cash payment for medical examination and treatment services at the unit to 24%. However, while POS, VNPAY, and bank transfer payment methods have many limitations (payment fees; need to go through an intermediary account; errors when swiping the card; long waiting time because patients have to enter a lot of payment information), the QR payment method is also revealing some inconveniences, such as: Patients do not know how to use the money transfer app; errors appear because patients have to enter the amount to be paid themselves; the banking network system often has errors after 10 p.m.... Therefore, the hospital is currently implementing the "dynamic QR" payment method.

Ms. Nguyen Thi My Hang - Head of Finance - Accounting Department, Vinh City General Hospital said: The "dynamic QR" payment method is considered the most advanced and superior today. The hospital will use software linked with the bank to create a separate QR code for each patient. This separate QR code has full information about the amount the patient must pay and the hospital account number. This dynamic QR code is displayed on the screen. When paying, the patient will use the bank's app to scan this QR code and complete the transaction. This method has the advantage of not having a payment fee; it is faster than the static QR method, avoiding risks due to the patient entering money himself.

Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital is also a pioneer in implementing cashless payment for medical examination and treatment services. From October 2021 to present, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital has implemented cashless payment methods such as bank transfer, VNPAY, POS card swiping. And from the beginning of 2023 to present, the hospital has been stably using the "dynamic QR" payment method. Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh - Head of Finance - Accounting Department, Nghe An Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital said: After 3 years of implementation, the hospital has gradually increased the rate of cashless payment. If in 2021 it reached 5.2%, by 2023 it will reach 31.4%.

Cashless payment, also known as electronic payment, is an inevitable development trend in the 4.0 era. At hospitals, cashless payment helps patients no longer have to wait in line to pay; minimizes the risk of cash transactions (mistakes, statistics, reconciliation) ... Helps hospitals reduce management costs, counting, printing of orders/vouchers; save costs, human resources, effective management; shorten the medical examination and treatment process; integrate with the hospital information system, electronic medical records, contributing to promoting the digital transformation process at hospitals..

Increase the rate of electronic payments

According to medical facilities: After a period of implementing cashless payment, reality has shown that the subjects using this form of payment are young people, highly educated, capable of using information technology and smartphones. However, the proportion of these subjects is not much in the total number of patients. There are many other subjects using cash due to factors such as cash usage habits; not familiar with payment via bank using SmartBanking cards, InternetBanking, e-wallets; elderly people do not use smartphones... These are the reasons why the proportion of patients paying without cash is not high.

In addition, cashless payments are also revealing some problems that need to be overcome, such as: Some errors occurred during the transfer process, causing the patient's account to be deducted but the money has not yet been transferred to the hospital's account. This leads to difficulties in the process of guiding, explaining, and resolving problems... Implementation may be interrupted or error-prone due to maintenance or upgrades to the banking system or unstable transmission lines, network systems, or hospital Wifi. Checking, comparing, and reviewing transactions is difficult because only a few employees have access to the bank's website.

Information from Nghe An Department of Health: There are currently 38 hospitals in the province, including 23 public hospitals and 15 non-public hospitals. Up to now, 28/38 units have implemented payment of hospital fees via banks (reaching a rate of 73.6%), however, the payment rate is very low... The Department of Health has set a target that by 2025, 100% of medical facilities will implement non-cash electronic payments; by 2030, non-cash payment services and medical examination and treatment facilities in urban areas will reach at least 50% of total hospital fee payments.

Pharmacist Tran Minh Tue - Deputy Director of Nghe An Department of Health said: Reality also shows that, to effectively implement cashless payment in hospitals, in addition to synchronous investment in information technology equipment, it is also necessary to apply appropriate methods for each group of patients, most importantly, to change the cash usage habits of the majority of people. To achieve the stated goal, in the coming time, the Department of Health will continue to direct units to overcome difficulties and further strengthen communication measures so that the implementation of hospital fee payment through banks achieves higher results.

Specifically: Direct hospitals to coordinate with commercial banks and payment intermediary service providers licensed by the State Bank to accelerate the implementation of various forms of non-cash payment, meeting the needs of people when participating in medical examination and treatment; have additional methods for accountants to control the transfer of money to hospital accounts as soon as customers successfully complete transactions.

Hospitals need to invest in and upgrade their infrastructure systems such as network systems, Wifi, etc.; must develop plans to deploy cashless payment solutions at the unit, with a specific implementation roadmap; train and improve staff qualifications to be able to support patients quickly, as well as have the knowledge to effectively detect issues related to fraud in this activity; strengthen propaganda and consultation on the benefits of cashless hospital payment through social networking sites and the unit's website for the people./.