Proud milestone on the regional medical map

On September 2-3, 2026, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (Bangkok, Thailand), the 25th Hospital Management Asia Conference solemnly organized the award ceremony for the annual HMA Awards 2026. Through rigorous evaluation rounds from the international jury panel, Bach Mai Hospital (Vietnam) excellently surpassed strong competitors to win the prestigious Excellence Award in the Infection Control Excellence category.

Dr. Truong Anh Thu, Head of the Infection Control Department at Bach Mai Hospital, receives the award from the Organizing Committee

This year's award records an extremely impressive scale of competition with hundreds of quality project applications from leading hospitals and medical organizations in the region. This achievement is a clear testament to the profound professional capacity, unceasing spirit of innovation, and strong commitment of the medical team of Bach Mai Hospital to global patient safety standards.

Scientific solution from multidimensional intervention model

Implemeted at the Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center - a specialized unit managing 129 beds with a group of patients with severe immunodeficiency and very high risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAI), the project titled "Evidence-Based Multimodal Intervention to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections in the Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center, Bach Mai Hospital, Vietnam" has thoroughly resolved complex clinical challenges.

Faced with the reality that infection rates tended to increase through periodic monitoring, Bach Mai Hospital quickly established a Rapid Response Team, closely combining the Infection Control Department, the infection control network across departments, and the Microbiology Department. Through root-cause analysis, experts pointed out risk factors ranging from hand hygiene compliance, aseptic procedures, environmental cleaning to external environmental factors.

From those epidemiological and clinical data, a comprehensive intervention strategy was applied over 4 months: Standardizing hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene procedures for medical staff, patients, family members, and cleaning service staff; strictly controlling invasive procedures, disinfecting medication vial caps, and managing infusion lines; while simultaneously re-establishing the ward environmental management system and controlling dust from neighboring construction areas.

Clinical efficacy and sustainable progress in quality management

The synchronization in implementation organization and real-time monitoring and feedback mechanism have brought impressive clinical improvement figures. The rate of healthcare-associated infections at the center decreased from 3.5% down to 0.3%, corresponding to a relative reduction of 91.4%. Core technical and hygiene compliance indices all achieved optimal rates, demonstrating a substantive transformation in behavior and professional compliance of the entire treatment team.

Sharing about the efforts from the perspective of someone who closely tracks the specialization, Dr. Truong Anh Thu - Head of the Infection Control Department, Bach Mai Hospital, confided: "To achieve this result, the most important thing is that we do not just stop at detecting errors but must together find the root causes and build a closed-loop monitoring system. The success of the project is thanks to the consensus and commitment to changing every smallest behavior every day - from the hands of medical staff, patients' family members to the standardization in every stage of environmental hygiene of the support team. This international award is an extremely meaningful recognition for the silent sweat of the entire collective on the journey to protect maximum safety for patients."

In resonance with that pride, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dao Xuan Co - Director of Bach Mai Hospital emphasized: "The prestigious award at the HMA Awards 2026 is a well-deserved recognition for the tireless efforts of the collective of physicians and nurses of Bach Mai Hospital in standardizing and improving professional quality, especially infection control work. This achievement affirms the deep integration capacity of Vietnamese healthcare, and is a strong motivation for us to continue to pioneer the application of advanced international standards to bring safety and the best treatment quality to patients."

With its effectiveness, reasonable cost, and high applicability, this intervention model has not only created a turning point at the Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center but is also a solid premise for Bach Mai Hospital to continue replicating across other high-risk units, affirming the prestige, position, and professional responsibility of a special-grade hospital on the international arena.

Dieu Hien