Rs 139 cr sanctioned for Delhi govt's cloud-based HIMS project

The Delhi government has sanctioned over Rs 139 crore for its ambitious HIMS project which will bring all hospitals of the national capital on one platform and ensure that patients don't have to stand in queues for appointments, an official statement said on Saturday.

After its implementation, Delhi will become the only state in the country to have a cloud-based health management system, the statement claimed.

At present, such a system is available in some developed countries, including Sweden and Germany.

Referring to the project at an event on Saturday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Health Information Management System (HIMS) project has been awarded to M/s NEC Corporation India Private Limited, a multinational corporation that will be looking after the whole platform.

''All the hospitals of Delhi are being connected to HIMS. All the medical services will be brought under one platform, through the HIMS portal. It will help us know how many beds are vacant in a hospital, the status of medicine stocks and staffers, number of ventilators and any other information about the medical infrastructure will be available on the HIMS platform. ''One wouldn't need to stand in queues in hospitals anymore, you will be able to get appointments on the phone itself and go as per your convenience,'' he said.

The statement said the Delhi government is trying to implement HIMS in all government hospitals of Delhi as soon as possible and private hospitals will also be connected in a phased manner. According to the official statement, the government is working on a war footing to implement the project, for which the tender has been awarded.

A budget of Rs 139,80,24,436 has been sanctioned by the Delhi Cabinet for the project, the statement said This ambitious healthcare transformation initiative aims to encompass all facilities under the ambit of the Delhi government. Some of the objectives of the system are -- streamlined processes at each healthcare facility, enhanced quality of healthcare service delivery in an efficient manner, judicious utilisation of available resources and increase efficiency of deployed manpower, assistance in policy making decisions / overall governance, enabling advancements in care through knowledge sharing research initiatives among others. After the implementation of Health Information Management System, people will be able to get an appointment with the doctor they wish to see by accessing an online portal from the comfort of their homes. They will be designated a time frame to meet the doctor and will be able to get consultation as per that, it said.

The government will conduct surveys across Delhi to make sure every citizen can get their eHealth Card made, it said. The cards will also be made at hospitals and other dedicated centres. The cards will be distributed through a door-to-door campaign. The eHealth Card will contain the entire medical history of the cardholder and they will be able to get treated at any hospital on the HIMS system, it said. All patient care related services like hospital administration, budgeting and planning, supply chain management, back end service and processes will be brought under this system, the statement said.

Health Cards will be issued through this system and will be available online for access. This will help the people of Delhi get all the information under one roof and immediate help in emergency cases. Under the Health Card Project, QR code based eHealth Cards will be issued to the residents of Delhi on the basis of Voter ID and Population Registry from which demographic and basic clinical information of each patient can be obtained, it said. Family mapping will be done through e-health cards for health schemes and programmes. It will be integrated with HIMS for seamless information exchange. Cards with QR codes will be distributed to each person after physical verification. Provisions will be made to issue modified or duplicate cards on the request of the people, it said.

To implement the HIMS project, a centralised call centre will be set up at two levels, it said. In the first level, call centre operators will receive calls and messages from people. After logging in to the CRM, they will assess the case and get it resolved and inform the available health care staff concerned. The operator will give the relevant information to the caller and a report will be generated at the end, the statement said. At the second level, doctors and experts of the Delhi Government will receive calls and messages and give appointments to the patient. If the case is an emergency, the helpline will accept their call immediately and talk to them to solve the problem. If need be, they will contact a specialist doctor of the concerned disease, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)