Soon you will be able to seek medical assistances from the country's premier medical institute, All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), without bothering about carrying your bulky medical history-sheets, investigations records and prescription slips. The Institute is now in the process of creating a detailed on-line data about patients coming for treatment.
“Working on its ambitious plan to minimise use of paper, AIIMS is already looking at making it more patient-friendly in terms of perfecting record keeping, doctors being able to access medical data from anywhere in the Institute and also providing an instant data base for analysis of the information available on the patients and the drugs used,” said AIIMS spokesperson Dr. Y.P. Gupta.
“Going online with this data will help patients and doctors alike. While the system will eliminate the need for patients to carry around cumbersome bundles of sheets, doctors too can look up information of the patients at the click of a button,” he said, adding that the scheme will be especially beneficial for patients coming to AIIMS from outside Delhi and seeking treatment for diseases that need long-term interventions.
The Institute will also be shifting to using computers to send official circulars, notices and other routine information to its staff.
“Already we had presentation by various departments about fund allocations which were done without using paper. There are other departments which are in the process of shifting to a paper-less mode. We are also looking at going on-line with inventory control of drugs used at the hospital, file tracking system, submitting leave applications and presenting fund allocations for various departments,” added Dr. Gupta.
However, for the Institute minimising paper isn't a new initiative and it faced problems while implementing the project earlier.
“The project was brought in couple of years back and we ran into some trouble with the implementing organisation. The process then got delayed or in some area where it was implemented, we ran into trouble in maintaining these units. Now we have partnered with the National Informatics Centre which is helping us implement the programme and train our staff,” said an AIIMS official.
Stating that the implementation will be a step-by-step process Dr. Gupta said: “We are gradually planning to cover all departments in the hospital in a manner that will create no confusion or delay in the on going work and patient care.”
Keywords: AIIMS, HIMS, hospital data management
