FV Hospital unveils “A Standard of Medical Excellence” brand positioning, building on 23 years of “Trust in Medical Ethics”

After 23 years of consistently delivering international-quality healthcare to Vietnam, guided by its philosophy of “Trust in Medical Ethics”, FV Hospital, a member of Thomson Medical Group, officially introduces its new brand positioning, “A Standard of Medical Excellence”. This milestone reflects the achievements, expertise and core values that FV has built, demonstrated and earned recognition for over more than two decades of operation.

Dr Jean-Marcel Guillon, Founder and CEO of FV Hospital, and Ms Nguyen Thi Le Thu – Marketing and Business Development Director of FV Hospital speak at the press conference on 15 September.

As the first foreign-invested hospital in southern Vietnam, FV was established with a vision of becoming a leading healthcare provider in Asia and a mission to “Build trust through internationally recognised medical expertise”. Throughout its journey, the hospital has consistently worked to meet a long list of rigorous standards and requirements. Today, the hospital proudly states: FV Hospital – A Standard of Medical Excellence.

FV Hospital holds a press conference to unveil its positioning: “A Standard of Medical Excellence”

Dr Jean-Marcel Guillon, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FV Hospital, explains:

“A Standard of Medical Excellence is built on a set of interconnected standards:

• Highly qualified doctors with a strong commitment to developing themselves and their teams
• Quality standards across all areas of operation to ensure efficiency and patient safety
• Well-trained healthcare professionals, including nurses, technicians and care assistants
• A patient-centred approach that respects patients’ rights and provides the best possible experience for patients and their families
• Continuous investment in the most advanced medical technology and equipment
• Ongoing training and professional development for doctors and healthcare staff
• A safe working environment that enables staff to pursue self-directed learning and access reliable, evidence-based medical information.”

Without any one of these elements, no healthcare provider can truly claim to meet international standards. Standards only have real value when they are independently assessed and certified by a reputable, internationally recognised third party.

FV Hospital was the first hospital in Vietnam to receive the international HAS healthcare quality certification from the Haute Autorité de Santé, France’s national health authority, in 2007. It has also maintained global JCI accreditation since 2016, alongside a range of specialised certifications, including ISO 15189 for its laboratory and the Mother-Baby Friendly Hospital certification awarded by the Ministry of Health.

In early 2026, US magazine Newsweek and global data provider Statista included several Vietnamese hospitals in their list of the World’s Best Specialised Hospitals in Asia-Pacific 2026. FV Hospital was the only private hospital in southern Vietnam to be featured on the list.

Highly qualified doctors

Dr Jean-Marcel Guillon highlighted that, over the past 23 years, FV has built a strong team of highly qualified Vietnamese doctors.

In FV Hospital’s early years, most of its doctors, particularly department heads, were foreign nationals, mainly from France. At the time, private healthcare in general, and FV in particular, faced significant recruitment challenges. Leading specialists were often reluctant to leave the public healthcare system to join a hospital founded and developed by French investors on what was then largely undeveloped land. With only a small number of private healthcare providers in Vietnam, many doctors viewed a move from the public to the private sector as too uncertain.

“My ambition was to eventually replace all department heads with Vietnamese doctors,” Dr Guillon recalls. While many other private hospitals chose to work with leading doctors after they retired, FV took a different approach. It sought doctors in their early 40s who already had solid experience and had worked or trained in developed healthcare systems such as those in the US, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. “This was very important to me because they had personally witnessed and experienced how medicine was practised in those countries,” he says, highlighting another essential quality: “They needed to be dynamic and ambitious.”

A dedicated doctor will always seek to develop their skills and experience to provide the best possible treatment for their patients. With ambition, they may also be well suited to becoming a department head, with the drive to develop both their department and their team. FV’s strategy has been to build an integrated international healthcare environment, from facilities and equipment to people, allowing doctors to focus fully on their clinical expertise. “Those who have retired no longer have the same drive. At 40–45, at the peak of their careers, doctors have gained a certain level of experience while still having the ambition to build and further develop their professional expertise,” Dr Guillon emphasises.

“To attract talented people, FV has to demonstrate through its actions that we deliver on what we promise. Here, we create an ideal working environment for healthcare professionals, where doctors are encouraged to demonstrate their abilities and given the freedom to develop themselves. After many years of perseverance, we now have a team we can be proud of. They may not be the most famous names in Vietnam, but they are certainly excellent doctors. Whenever I have a health problem, I have complete confidence in my team,” Dr Guillon says.

International quality standards

FV Hospital first achieved JCI accreditation in 2016, at a time when the concept was still unfamiliar not only to the public but also to many healthcare professionals. Joint Commission International (JCI) sets rigorous standards for healthcare quality and management, helping to ensure high levels of patient safety. At FV, every aspect of hospital operation is governed by clear standards, from registration, consultation and diagnosis to care and treatment, as well as the smallest operational processes.

“No JCI accreditation can ever be achieved on paper alone. After inviting JCI experts to conduct a preliminary assessment in 2009, we looked at the long list of standards we had yet to meet and wondered when we would ever be able to achieve JCI accreditation.”

For seven years, the entire FV team worked together to develop hundreds of procedures, policies and training materials, while transforming established ways of working, thinking and managing. In 2016, following a rigorous week-long assessment, thousands of FV staff celebrated when JCI officially announced: “FV Hospital has achieved JCI accreditation.” This was a major achievement for the entire organisation. An independent third party had confirmed that FV was living up to its mission to “Build trust through internationally recognised medical expertise”.

Patients at the heart of FV Hospital

This is FV’s most important core value, established from the very beginning: everything the hospital does revolves around the patient and is designed with their needs in mind.

According to Dr Jean-Marcel Guillon, FV has been a pioneer in establishing a patient-centred philosophy.

“Changing the mindset and habits of healthcare professionals is the hardest part, and it takes many years. In the past, doctors were at the centre of the hospital.

“I remember being shocked when I sat behind a one-way mirror during market research sessions when I first came to Vietnam to start the FV project. People we interviewed told us that they had undergone treatment, even surgery, without knowing what condition they had because their doctors had not explained it to them.

“Back then, patients simply did what the doctor told them,” Dr Guillon recalls.

FV strictly follows two fundamental principles: respecting patients’ rights and providing them with the best possible experience.

At FV, doctors and staff take the time to listen and explain all relevant health information before, during and after consultation, diagnosis and treatment. Patients and their families are involved in treatment decisions. Once they agree to proceed, they receive further information about their rights and responsibilities before signing the consent form. The rights of patients and their families, including the right to be treated with respect and to have their confidentiality and privacy protected, are clearly defined under JCI standards. “FV was a pioneer in building a patient-centred philosophy,” Dr Guillon says.

Treatment is the hospital’s core responsibility, but providing the best possible patient experience is equally essential. FV’s facilities have been designed around the patient journey, from waiting areas and sofas to hospital beds, with thoughtful layouts that minimise unnecessary movement while providing comfort and convenience. From doctors and nurses to administrative staff, FV teams receive communication and service training to ensure that patients and their families feel as comfortable as possible throughout their journey, from registration, consultation, testing, diagnosis and treatment to discharge, as well as dining and hospital billing services.

“Communication skills are extremely important, from answering the telephone to the way a doctor communicates difficult news, such as a serious diagnosis or a death. We provide continuous training in these skills for all staff, both through internal programmes and with professional external training providers,” Dr Guillon adds.

FV Hospital: 23 Years from “Trust in Medical Ethics” to “A Standard of Medical Excellence”

FV Hospital’s short film introducing its “A Standard of Medical Excellence” brand positioning.

Commitment to investing in the most advanced technology and equipment

Medicine is advancing at an extraordinary pace. While the principles of diagnosis and treatment remain the same, the technologies supporting them continue to evolve. In surgery, minimally invasive techniques were once a major breakthrough. Instead of opening the abdomen or chest, surgeons could operate through several small incisions with the aid of a screen, resulting in faster procedures, less blood loss, a lower risk of infection and quicker recovery.

Several decades later, robotic surgery emerged, transforming both the way surgeons perform procedures and how patients recover. Magnified visualisation and robotic arms capable of rotating 540 degrees have enabled increasingly precise surgical movements, even at the micrometre level.

FV Hospital officially launches FV da Vinci Robotic Surgery Centre in early 2026.

Staying true to its original commitment, FV continues to lead the way in investing in the latest and most advanced integrated technologies and medical equipment. At the end of 2025, the hospital invested USD 3.1 million in the da Vinci Xi robotic surgical system. In early 2026, its Department of Neurosurgery was equipped with a Brain Navigation system, which helps surgeons navigate pathways within the brain, at a cost of approximately USD 500,000. In June 2026, FV introduced a 3.0 Tesla MRI scanner worth USD 2.2 million. The hospital has also signed a contract to purchase the CyberKnife S7 robotic radiosurgery system, the first AI-integrated technology of its kind in Vietnam and Southeast Asia for non-invasive cancer treatment. FV is also a pioneer in applying techniques such as stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and brachytherapy in cancer treatment.

FV Hospital Neurosurgery Department is equipped with Brain Navigation technology.

“State-of-the-art equipment requires highly skilled professionals to operate it. We regularly send doctors, technicians and nurses for training at partner hospitals overseas to ensure that our equipment is used as effectively as possible,” Dr Guillon says.

A Standard of Medical Excellence, brought to life through three core values

Ms Nguyen Thi Le Thu, Director of Marketing and Business Development at FV Hospital, explains: “The ‘A Standard of Medical Excellence’ positioning reflects FV’s significant growth and maturity, built on the brand philosophy of ‘Trust in Medical Ethics’, which we have remained committed to for many years.”

Ms Nguyen Thi Le Thu, Marketing and Business Development Director at FV Hospital, speaks at the press conference

If “Trust in Medical Ethics” is the commitment FV made at the beginning of its journey, then “A Standard of Medical Excellence” must be reflected in the values patients experience when they choose FV. These values are brought to life through three pillars: Accurate Diagnosis, Effective Treatment and Exceptional Value.

Accurate Diagnosis combines doctors’ clinical expertise, their ability to listen to patients, appropriate diagnostic approaches and the effective use of advanced technologies available at FV.

Effective Treatment results from a coordinated system that brings together multidisciplinary consultation, treatment teams, appropriate technology and continuously updated clinical expertise.

The third pillar, Exceptional Value, directly answers the question: what do patients gain from this level of medical expertise?

For FV, “Exceptional Value” does not mean that the most expensive option is necessarily best. It means delivering the highest standards across every aspect of the patient experience, from the expertise of its highly qualified doctors and a safe, JCI-accredited care environment to its commitment to investing in the latest medical technology and equipment, dedicated patient care and five-star standards.
FV also strives to make advanced healthcare more accessible to the community through comprehensive coverage under Vietnam’s Social Insurance scheme, combined benefits from private insurance, the FV Membership Card programme and interest-free instalment plans for hospital bills.

“The key message we want to share with the community is this: FV understands you. And it is because of you that, for the past 23 years, we have continued to strive to provide healthcare that meets international standards and reflects the value of your health,” Ms Le Thu says.

USD 50 million investment in a new building to strengthen medical tourism

FV Hospital’s Management Board emphasises that “A Standard of Medical Excellence” is not a statement disconnected from the hospital’s past. Rather, it reflects the capabilities and strengths that FV has built and sustained over more than two decades. Medical ethics remain the core value that runs throughout the organisation, shaping the way the hospital places patients at the centre of care and treats them as equal partners throughout the treatment journey.

FV Hospital regularly hosts major regional medical conferences, providing a platform for medical professionals from Vietnam and abroad to share knowledge and explore the latest advances in medical technology and treatment.

Establishing “A Standard of Medical Excellence” today provides a strong foundation for FV as it enters its next phase of growth. In October 2026, FV is expected to officially break ground on a new building, Building H, with a total investment of USD 50 million. The project will focus on expanding treatment centres for cancer, gastroenterology and hepatology, while further developing specialised services such as kidney transplantation and IVF. At the same time, the hospital is standardising its processes with the aim of achieving international medical tourism certification in Q1 2027. This will contribute to positioning Ho Chi Minh City as a trusted healthcare destination in the region.

With a commitment to continually challenging itself, FV sees meeting international standards not as a final destination, but as an ongoing drive to raise the quality of care and deliver the highest possible level of patient safety.