Newly established social work team of Thuan An Town Health Center has increasingly played an important role as a bridge between physicians and patients. There, social workers have assisted effectively in the medical examination and treatment. To patients, social workers are spiritual friends that help them feel happy and recover quickly.
Members of the social work team were counseling patients.
Bringing smiles to patients
Nguyen Thi Nga (Lai Thieu Ward, Thuan An Town) took her child to Thuan An Town Health Center for medical examination. Ms. Nga said: "As a migrant worker, I did not know how to do when I first came to the center; then officials of social work team guided me. I was very happy, because I was not confused when I first came here”.
Other patients also need members of the social work team. Tran Thi Khanh Quyen, a member of the social work team, said that patients after treatment needed to be cared. "We want patients and their family to feel more comfortable here. Our daily tasks are: guiding, providing information, introducing medical services to patients right after patients enter the medical examination; providing counseling for patients on their rights and interests, policies on health insurance in medical examination and treatment; providing information and counseling for patients who have been prescribed for referral, treatment or discharge; assisting discharge procedures, introducing patients to community support places... We hope to bring smile to patients and their families”, she said.
A model needs to be expanded
Social work team was established in 2015. Every day, they directly guide, visit, motivate and support patients. They also give patient's family advices about treatment protocols, administrative procedures, encouragement, address problems of patients.
A health center receives daily averagely thousands of patient. Thus, the support of social workers is very significant. In order to shorten the waiting time for patients as well as reduce the pressure for medical staff, every early morning, social workers are always present at their counter to help, support the sick. Through feedbacks of patients, family members as well as medical staff, activities of social work team at Thuan An Health Center have brought practical results. This shows that the establishment of social work team is a right direction in order to better satisfy patients.
On other hand, voluntary works for public health have also been carried out throughout. In 2016 and 6 months of 2017, charity organizations in collaboration with the social work team organized free medical examination and counseling, gave gifts to more than 2,500 policy beneficiaries, poor households, people with disabilities, orphans in Thuan An Town, districts, towns in the province and remote areas with total expense up to VND300 million.
Charity kitchen located at Thuan An Health Center providing 150 meals a day has opened for 5 years. Huynh Thi Nguyet Phuong, Director of Thuan An Town Health Center, said: "Since the establishment of the social work team, satisfaction level of patients has increased day by day. During the third quarter of this year, satisfaction rate of patients was up to over 93%. There was a saying in the assessment that I was very pleased that more than 80% patients would return to the medical center. In the future, Thuan An Town Health Center will strengthen staff of the social work team in order for the team to work more effectively and professionally.
Reported by Huynh Thuy – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
