Purpose

This study investigated the availability of relevant structural and human resources needed for the clinical management of patients with severe acute respiratory infections and sepsis in critical care units in Vietnam.

Material and methods

A questionnaire survey was conducted by purposive sampling of 128 hospitals (36% of total hospitals in surveyed provinces), including 25 provincial and 103 district level hospitals, from 20 provinces in Vietnam. Data on availability of hospital characteristics, structural resources and health care workers was then analyzed.

Results

Most hospitals (> 80%) reported having 60% of the relevant structural resources. Significant differences were observed between provincial hospitals when compared to district hospitals in regards to availability of central oxygen piping system (78.3% vs 38.7%, p = 0.001) mechanical ventilation (100.0% vs 73.6%, p = 0.003), mobile x-rays (80.0% vs 29.8%, p < 0.001), carbapenem antibiotic (73.9% vs 17.4%, p < 0.001) and norepinephrine (95.8% vs 56.3%, p < 0.001). There was a limited availability of arterial blood gas analyzers (13.7%), oseltamivir (42.2%) and N95 respirators (54.6%) across all hospitals surveyed.

Conclusions

The limited availability of relevant structural and human resources in critical care units around Vietnam makes the implementation of quality critical care to patients with SARI and sepsis, according international guidelines, not universally possible.