The patients of Sassoon General Hospital will soon have their own identification numbers that will provide access to medical services in any part of the state. A total of 14 computers have been installed at the Out Patient Department (OPD) registration counter of the hospital, which has a daily inflow of close to 2,000 patients, as a trial run to eventually make the hospital ‘paperless’.

Dr Arun Jamkar, Dean of B J Medical College and Sassoon General hospital said that that the project is part of the Hospital Management and Information System. The process had begun two years ago at Mumbai’s Grant medical college and J J hospital. The next phase has government medical colleges of Pune, Aurangabad and Nagpur conducting their trial runs.

The final aim is to get 14 government-run medical colleges and 19 affiliates linked through an integrated software. Every patient visiting a hospital will be given a unique health identity number and will have access to his or her medical history at any hospital across the state, including prescribed drug records, diagnostic tests related information, X-ray, CT Scan, MRI and allergies.

This is a project of the state’s medical education and drugs department. Jamkar pointing out that the move is expected to bring with it transparency in accounts as well as an increase in administrative accountability. The software, designed by Amrita Technologies, Kochi, is a powerful one based on open source technology.

Though efforts to computerise all the hospitals have been on since 1998, things started rolling only in 2003. This time around, a steering committee, comprising secretaries of finance, planning, IT, medical education and drugs departments, has been formed to oversee and review the work time and again. It is expected that even the inventory management of hospitals will become more effective and transparent with HMIS.