Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in Vietnam pioneered the practice of clinical pharmacy; however, hospitals in HCMC have faced numerous challenges that might influence the job satisfaction of clinical pharmacists (CPs). Additionally, there have been no official statistics about clinical pharmacy activities that have been reported so far. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the current status of the clinical pharmacy profession and to analyze the key factors affecting job satisfaction of CPs in HCMC. This was a cross-sectional study. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to all the CPs in all the 128 hospitals in HCMC via an online survey tool from May to June 2020. Only about 30% of the respondents were full-time CPs. The percentage of CPs participating in clinical wards was relatively low (52.79%). “Provide drug information for patients and medical employees” was the most common clinical pharmacy activity, with the percentage of CPs participating in it being nearly 90%. Overall, 74.1% of the 197 CPs surveyed were satisfied with their current job. The factors that they were satisfied with the most and the least were “Inter & Intra professional relationships” (95.9%) and “Income” (59.9%), respectively. The only demographic and work-related characteristic that had a statistically significant association with overall job satisfaction was “Ward round participation”. Most clinical pharmacy tasks noted a high rate of participation from the CPs. Nevertheless, hospitals in HCMC was found to be experiencing a shortage of CPs and low levels of participation of CPs in ward rounds, and most CPs were unable to completely focus on clinical pharmacy tasks. Regarding CPs’ job satisfaction-related aspects, income and ward round participation appear to be the two factors that should be increased, in order to enhance CPs’ job satisfaction.

BackgroundAccording to the International Diabetes Federation, total global health care expenditures for diabetes tripled between 2003 and 2013 because of increases in the number of people with diabetes as well as in the average expenditures per patient. This study aims to provide accurate and timely information about the economic impacts of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Vietnam.MethodThe cost-of-illness estimates followed a prospective, prevalence-based approach from the societal perspective of T2DM with 392 selected diabetic patients who received treatment from a public hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, during the 2016 fiscal year.ResultsIn this study, the annual cost per patient estimate was US $246.10 (95% CI 228.3, 267.2) for 392 patients, which accounted for about 12% (95% CI 11, 13) of the gross domestic product per capita in 2017. That includes US $127.30, US $34.40 and US $84.40 for direct medical costs, direct nonmedical expenditures, and indirect costs, respectively. The cost of pharmaceuticals accounted for the bulk of total expenditures in our study (27.5% of total costs and 53.2% of direct medical costs). A bootstrap analysis showed that female patients had a higher cost of treatment than men at US $48.90 (95% CI 3.1, 95.0); those who received insulin and oral antidiabetics (OAD) also had a statistically significant higher cost of treatment compared to those receiving OAD, US $445.90 (95% CI 181.2, 690.6). The Gradient Boosting Regression (Ensemble method) and Lasso Regression (Generalized Linear Models) were determined to be the best models to predict the cost of T2DM (R2=65.3, mean square error [MSE]=0.94; and R2=64.75, MSE=0.96, respectively).ConclusionThe findings of this study serve as a reference for policy decision making in diabetes management as well as adjustment of costs for patients in order to reduce the economic impact of the disease.

BackgroundDengue is a mosquito-borne viral illness with the world’s fastest rate of infection. In 2014, Vietnam had recorded 43,000 cases in 53 provinces, with 28 deaths.Materials and methodsA 6-month cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2015 to March 2016 at Cu Chi General Hospital. Cost of illness in this study was estimated under the incidence-based approach from the societal perspective.ResultsThe average cost per case was US$139.3±$61.7. The average cost per child was higher than per adult, but not significant ($151.0±$63.5 and $132.7±$59.9, respectively; P=0.068). Meanwhile, 50.2% of the total cost was contributed by the cost of hospital bed. According to the sensitivity analysis, if both the costs of the hospital bed and ultrasound were reduced by 10%, the total treatment cost of dengue fever would fall by 5% and 1.6%, respectively.ConclusionThis study is expected to be the basis for investment-plan formulation and fund allocation for the treatment and prevention of dengue. In an attempt to examine the entire socioeconomic encumbrance caused by the dengue virus, a larger scale study targeting both dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever needs to be conducted in several hospitals.

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