E-Paper
PGIMER plans ₹27-cr upgrade to help digitise health services
PGIMER is planning to upgrade the hospital’s information system with updated software in a bid to make health services patient-friendly
Strap: Plans to upgrade the hospital’s information system with updated software in a bid to make services patient friendly
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) is planning to upgrade the hospital’s information system with updated software versions, wherein health services will be digitised and made patient-friendly.
With ₹27 crore hospital information system (HIS) version-2 project, the institute aims to improve technology-based patient and health services, its queue management system and provide easy integration of Government of India’s digital missions. It has been designed by the computer section of PGIMER, in collaboration with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Noida.
The HIS is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to manage the administrative, clinical and support aspects of a hospital. The systems are often composed of one or several software components with specialty-specific extensions.
Many of the institute’s patient-friendly projects, including SMS facility for laboratory tests, online payments of treatment, online registration of outpatient departments—are completely dependent on the technology and information system. Due to old versions of software, these initiatives are presently facing implementation issues in PGI.
“We are using the first version of HIS, installed in 2007. Since then, the technology has made huge advances, but we are yet to upgrade the technology in PGI. The current system is slow and faces technology breakdown on several occasions, given the patient load”, said PGIMER deputy director (administration), Kumar Gaurav Dhawan.
He added, “With HIS-2, the computer systems will work faster and will provide better facilities to the patients, improved queue management as patients will be given exact time at which they will get to see the doctors. Also, the HIS-2 will connect PGIMER with its satellite centres at Sangrur and Ferozepur.”
The new system is also expected to help in easy implementation of Centre’s scheme, including Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, the ‘eSanjeevani’ project, wherein facilities like digital consultation with doctors, consent of patients in letting medical practitioners access their records, are available to people across the country.
Will seek standing finance committee approval
The HIS-2 project will be tabled in the standing finance committee meeting on Wednesday, which will be chaired by the Union health secretary. PGIMER’s director Dr Vivek Lal will also be present in the meeting, where the institute will present around 30 agendas for approvals.
“Once approved, we can formally start implementing the project by procuring hardware and computer systems. It will take around six months to get the initial facilities of the project and it may take around a year to fully implement the complete project”, Dhawan said.
