Patients' health records now a click away

State-run hospitals will soon go online

In order to reduce paperwork in hospitals, the 34 state-run hospitals will put patients' health records online, enabling doctors to access these with ease.

A senior official from Directorate of Health Services said, currently the hospitals in Raigad and Nashik have implemented this system and have received a positive response from the hospitals. “After successfully implementing this system in Raigad and Nashik, we are now planning to extend it in 34 hospitals,” said the official.

This decision comes after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), decided to maintain the patients' records on the health management information system (HMIS) which is the dream project.

Dr Nitin Amadekar, the Joint Director, Health Services (Hospital), said, under this programme, E-Hospital, Outpatient Department (OPD), the patients' wards, laboratory, medical shop, emergency department and surgery department will be linked with each other. “This initiative will bring a complete transparency and accuracy in the day-to-day functioning of the hospitals.The aim is to keep proper records of all the patients,” said Dr Amadekar.

He further said, thousands of needy patients visit the government hospitals for better treatment, but in the current situation there is a lot of confusion and chaos. Often many patients lose their case papers and medical records in transit, as they travel long distances to make it to the city. The lack of any documentation prevents doctors from treating these patients properly.

“While drawing the case papers, all the necessary information of the patients will be recorded. A patient will be given a receipt with a barcode and when the patient returns for a follow-up, the hospital has to only scan that barcode where all the information related to the patient's condition and treatment will be easily available to the doctor,” said Dr Amadekar.