One of the most alarming challenges in modern healthcare is the escalating prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) driven by antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Globally, an estimated 136 million cases of healthcare-associated infections caused by drug-resistant microorganisms are recorded every year. This dangerous reality not only drives up mortality rates, degrades therapeutic efficacy, extends hospital stays, and inflates medical costs, but also amplifies the hazard of drug-resistant pathogens spreading throughout clinical settings and into the broader community.
To counter these emerging risks, the Ministry of Health of Vietnam is currently soliciting public feedback on a comprehensive draft Circular on infection prevention and control across medical examination and treatment facilities. This new regulatory framework is designed to replace Circular No. 16/2018/TT-BYT dated July 20, 2018.
Aligning Infection Control with Quality Management and Patient Safety
According to the draft proposal, infection prevention and control must be seamlessly integrated throughout the entire clinical pathway, working in tandem with quality assurance and patient safety protocols. The scale and intensity of infection control measures, monitoring routines, and resource allocation must correspond precisely to each facility’s clinical scope, target patient demographics, procedural complexity, medical instrumentation, and practical risk profiles.
Infection control in healthcare facilities must be closely linked to quality management and patient safety.
Under the draft regulations, essential infection control practices encompass:
- Active Surveillance: Routine tracking of healthcare-associated infections and auditing compliance with infection prevention protocols.
- Invasive Intervention Controls: Specialized precautions for surgical operations, invasive procedures, and high-risk patient cohorts.
- Patient & Caregiver Education: Clear counseling on hygiene and pathogen transmission prevention.
- Standard & Transmission-Based Precautions: Strict hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and targeted isolation protocols.
- Instrument & Environmental Safety: High-level sterilization of medical devices, safe management of medical waste, surface cleaning, and biomedical linen processing.
- Occupational Health: Prevention and prompt management of occupational exposure to infectious agents.
All consumables, disinfectants, instruments, and equipment utilized for infection prevention must align with their intended use, satisfy rigorous quality and safety benchmarks, and follow technical instructions provided by manufacturers. Furthermore, digital healthcare applications must be leveraged to optimize data collection, ensure cybersecurity, protect patient privacy, and eliminate duplicate reporting across systems.
Hospital leadership bears ultimate responsibility for organizing, financing, and monitoring the infection control apparatus. Outsourcing supporting services does not absolve healthcare facilities of their accountability for maintaining strict infection control standards.
Establishing Mandatory Hospital-Wide Surveillance Networks
The draft circular stipulates that every hospital must build and maintain a systematic surveillance mechanism tailored to its operational scale. Facilities are tasked with systematically collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and feeding back epidemiological data to promptly identify anomalous infection clusters and implement corrective actions.
Prioritized surveillance targets include treatment-associated infections, multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), and high-consequence pathogens of epidemiological importance. Non-hospital clinics and specialized care centers must also execute surveillance actions directly pertinent to their specific clinical services and procedural risks.
Healthcare facilities participating in national surveillance programs managed by the Ministry of Health must adhere strictly to standardized case definitions, tracking indicators, and reporting protocols to ensure consistent data quality and cross-facility comparability.
Stringent Precautions for Invasive Procedures and High-Risk Patients
Medical establishments performing invasive interventions, deploying indwelling medical devices, or managing critically ill patients must carry out pre-procedure risk assessments and enact robust preventive measures throughout the entire continuum of care.
Hand hygiene and standard precautions play a decisive role in curbing healthcare-associated infections.
In high-dependency units such as Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and surgical suites, infection rates can escalate to 20–30% without adequate oversight. Globally, more than 1.4 million patients suffer from hospital-acquired infections at any given time, underscoring the critical need for rigid compliance.
Medical personnel performing invasive techniques must undergo certified training and continuous competency evaluations regarding aseptic techniques, hand hygiene, and risk mitigation. Hospitals must conduct audits of core procedural practices, provide continuous feedback, and implement targeted quality improvements to protect patient well-being.
