BENGALURU: Karnataka will have 47 government hospitals on the Union government’s Online Registration System (ORS) by March 31. Currently, only three city-based hospitals -- NIMHANS, Samvaad Institute of Speech and Hearing, and KC General Hospital are on ORS.
ORS is a framework to link various hospitals across the country for Aadhaar-based online registration and appointment system. Under ORS, counter based out-patient department registration has been digitised through Hospital Management Information System (HMIS).
Medical history
Dr Ganesh H, state nodal officer for e-hospital programme under the National Health Mission said, “In the first phase, 47 medical institutions have been chosen for which tender has already been invited. Patients can avail online registration facility. ORS will show the time during which consultants and specialists will be available. Lab reports can be received on a mobile application, including discharge summary. UHID is Aadhar-based so if they go for a referral to another hospital, there will be no repetition of tests and the doctor can easily view medical history.”
For doctors, there will be a separate national identity number so that only they can view medical records of the patients. “We are using International Classification of Disease Code for diagnosis. That will prevent unnecessary tests that can be prescribed by doctors and pave way for ethical treatment. One does not need to carry hard copies of reports at every stage,” he said.
Trial run
“We are already having a trial run at Kolar district hospital. Even if the government hospital does not have a website, which is mostly the case, one can find the hospital on ors.gov.in. and register themselves. This includes 21 district hospitals and seven medical colleges under State Health Department. Interlinking of hospitals will also be done," he said.
By next year the facility will be extended to all taluk hospitals, which are 144 in total, Ganesh said.
CSR and tech initiatives
Other tech initiatives are in the offing under Corporate Social Responsibility initiative which includes a programmer from Google which will help in inventory management of the health department. Biocon inaugurated eLAJ smart clinic on Tuesday, and Samsung will provide tablets to Primary Healthcare Centres and Hewlett Packard will set up health kiosks in far flung areas.
Health commissioner Subodh Yadav had tweeted on Saturday saying, “Agreement with Samsung is getting finalised to provide and cover all primary health centres with tabs with suitable software to capture patients’ information. This is the health department’s third initiative under corporate social responsibility after Biocon and Hewlett Packard in recent times.”
Joint director (medical) Manjunath B said, “HP will set up five e-health kiosks in rural areas. These kiosks will be linked to a cloud that will connect them to physicians at KC General Hospital in Bengaluru. Samsung will provide 1,000 tabs in primary health centres.”