Hospital CEOs: Where are you?

Most hospital executives in Vietnam are doctors, experts in the medical field, but who lack the know-how to turn their hospitals into efficient businesses.

With little training in hospital management, many hospital executives have been running their hospitals largely on past experience in other fields or by using whatever innate business acumen they might have.

The reasons for a lack of qualified professionals holding hospital CEO positions in Vietnam are numerous and range from social prejudice to a lack of money and incentive.

According to one private hospital manager, many Vietnamese doctors are interested in acquiring training on hospital management but are often discouraged by society’s unsympathetic eye for a doctor-turned-professional businessman.

People commonly liken doctors to “saints” and look upon an entrepreneurial spirit as “money-hungry,” he says.

“It often puts up a wall between doctors and the public.”

This social dichotomy separating doctors and hospitals from the “lucrative” world of business partly explains why one of the first things hospitals look for when selecting an executive or CEO is whether or not the candidate is a doctor.

“This should be changed,” says Dr. Nguyen Huu Tung, general director of HCMC-based Hoan My Medical Joint-Stock Company.

Tung says that if he had to choose between a doctor and a professional hospital manager to be his CEO, he would choose the latter.

“An excellent professional executive will establish effective policies and tools to make the most of high-quality human resources and supervise the hospital’s operation,” he says.

Tung adds that at present, Hoan My is reorganizing itself under the guidance of an American management expert.

According to the expert, incumbent doctor-CEOs at Vietnamese hospitals would be bet-ter suited to the position of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) – one ranking lower than a CEO.

However, becoming aware of the need for professional hospital executives is just one part of the equation.

Even if they want to, it is extremely difficult for Vietnamese hospitals to find qualified domestic managers, says Tung.

Due to low demand, hardly anyone is offering training for professional hospital managers, although according to some, institutions like the National University are fully capable of offering high-quality pro-grams on hospital management.

As for hiring foreigners, this is simply out of the question as they are very expensive to acquire, says Tung.

The minimum cost to bring in some-one from outside the country is around US$150,000 (VND2.4 billion) per year.

With adequate investment and importance placed on professional management, hospitals may one day be able to afford such prices.

But insiders say the Vietnamese government’s incentive for significant investment in hospitals is still lacking.

The Ministry of Health, for instance, is yet to develop a comprehensive legal framework for different types of hospitals.

As a result, most hospitals are cautious about moving into the vague territory of professional legalities.

Thus, most Vietnamese hospital staffs don’t see an investment in improving management as some-thing that will happen any time soon.

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By Thanh Phuong
Thanh Nien News