HYDERABAD: Hospitals in Hyderabad and other metropolitan centres may have stronger digital infrastructure, but integrating existing systems into everyday clinical workflows remains a major challenge, according to a new study by the Indian School of Business (ISB).
The study, published as a white paper titled Post-Adoption Value of NABH Digital Health Standards: A Multi-Hospital Assessment in India, examined 20 hospitals that had secured NABH Digital Health Standards (DHS) certification. Hyderabad was among the eight cities classified as metropolitan centres for the study, though the report did not provide separate Hyderabad-specific outcome figures.
The white paper was unveiled at ISB in Hyderabad on Thursday by IRDAI Chairperson Ajay Seth.
The findings offer insights into the challenges faced by digitally advanced hospital ecosystems such as Hyderabad. While metropolitan hospitals were found to have better digital infrastructure, their existing systems were often underutilised or poorly integrated into daily clinical workflows. To address these gaps, hospitals adopted phased rollouts, appointed digital champions and set up governance committees and formal oversight mechanisms.
Implementation challenges
According to the report, staff training and workflow redesign emerged as major implementation challenges in metropolitan hospitals. All metro respondents identified staff training as a key requirement, compared with 75.8% of non-metro respondents. Similarly, workflow redesign was cited by 94.7% of metro respondents, against 48.5% of non-metro respondents.
The study found that metropolitan hospitals were focused on improving the utilisation of existing systems, strengthening integration and enhancing data quality. Non-metro facilities, meanwhile, were more focused on building basic IT infrastructure and reducing dependence on paper-based records.
Overall, hospitals adopting DHS reported an increase in average digital maturity from 3.42 to 4.35 on a five-point scale. System integration improved from 3.31 to 4.35, while the use of digital records for clinical decision-making rose from 3.00 to 4.37.
Data privacy and documentation quality were each rated 4.56, while operational efficiency scored 4.38 and interoperability 4.29. The overall value of DHS was rated 4.62 out of five.
The study found that hospitals largely pursued digital standards to improve patient-care quality and operational efficiency rather than merely meet compliance requirements. Improving patient-care quality was cited by 98.1% of respondents, while 88.5% identified operational efficiency as a key objective.
Ajay Seth stressed that digital health standards should improve the availability, accessibility and affordability of healthcare rather than become merely a compliance exercise.
The report concluded that sustained leadership, staff engagement and workflow redesign would be critical for hospitals to derive lasting value from digital health systems. It also cautioned that the findings largely reflected self-reported experiences of early adopters rather than independently audited outcomes.
