VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government, which is working to establish e-hospitals at 54 teaching, district and area hospitals in the State, has selected Vijayawada government general hospital for the implementation of the Central project on a pilot basis.
The project, a part of the Digital India initiative, aims to provide “online patient portal for delivery of citizen centric services like online appointment booking, access to lab reports online and blood availability status,” according to a government portal.
Under Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), the Union government issues Ayushman Bharath Health Account (ABHA) cards to patients and allocates them a 14-digit unique ID number with QR code that can be accessed at the e-hospitals.
A patient need not carry previous reports or other documentations regarding his medical history as the ABHA cards, issued during his/her first visit to the hospital, alone serves the purpose.The registration module has been deployed successfully at all the 54 hospitals and the clinical module training for staff has also begun. National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the implementing agency.
Meanwhile, the State stood first in the country in initiating the project and recently won praises for the same from National Health Authority CEO Dr RS Sarma.The State took measures that resulted in the creation of over two crore ABHA cards and successful linkage of over 19,000 health records.
Medical and Health special secretary GS Naveen Kumar told The New Indian Express: “AP is topping in the country in implementation of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) initiatives. More measures will be taken to integrate patient-care with ABDM and to follow all international standards of data integration and privacy.”
The digitisation work at the Vijayawada hospital had begun a year ago. Eighty computers worth `52 lakhs were installed at the hospital. The outpatient (OP) department has been using the e-module for the past five months.
Meanwhile, more computers were installed at the super-speciality block on Saturday, said G Sashidhar, facilitator, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission e-hospital (GGH, Vijayawada). He added 90 per cent of the works for setting up the e-hospital had been completed and the rest will be completed by the end of this month.