Exploring the Interface Between International Nongovernmental Organizations and Local Vietnamese Hospitals in Cleft...

Despite recent advances in cleft care, Vietnam continues to have extensive involvement from international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), creating a fragmented system with limited coordination. This project seeks to establish a baseline understanding of Vietnam's cleft care landscape, including major international NGOs and their collaborations with local partners, costs and insurance coverage, and patterns applicable to other low- and middle-income countries with NGO-supported cleft care.

We conducted a mixed-methods study using literature review and semi-structured interviews with surgeons, hospital administrators, and NGO representatives (n = 7). Sources included PubMed, targeted Google searches, and government regulations on NGO involvement, cleft care costs, and insurance policies.

Vietnam partners with 17 international NGOs that operate through 3 distinct but complementary models: vertical, horizontal, and diagonal models. These collaborations offer financial support, infrastructure, technology investment, and research development, leading to higher surgical volume, more timely access to care, and implementation of standardized multidisciplinary cleft services in Vietnam. National insurance provides broad coverage but requires a complex referral process with limited benefits for secondary cleft services. Limited awareness of insurance benefits and mistrust of local care further discourage the use of national health insurance.

Improving access to comprehensive cleft services in Vietnam requires streamlining insurance referral pathways and decentralizing advanced cleft services to regional centers to ensure continuity of care. Aligning NGO activities with national policies is essential to building a coordinated and sustainable cleft care system in Vietnam and in other low- and middle-income countries with strong insurance frameworks and significant NGO involvement.