Indian Railways Launches Trial Project Of Hospital Management Information System

Indian Railways launched a trial project of the hospital management information system (HMIS) on Friday, December 11, in a bid to achieve a paradigm shift in the healthcare system maintained by the railway network, and to prioritize the well-being of its workforce and their beneficiaries. According to the Railway Ministry, the HMIS is implemented as a pilot project at the Central Hospital, Lallaguda, of the South Central Railway zone. The hospital management information system is developed by Indian Railways in coordination with the RailTel Corporation Limited, a public sector undertaking of the government. The main objective of the HMIS is to provide a single-window of clearance for hospital administration activity such as diagnostics, clinical, pharmacy, health, examinations, etc.

The primary objectives of the Indian Railways hospital management information are as follows:

• Manage all healthcare facilities and their resources
• Monitor the performance of hospitals across the administrative channels
• Impart quality health care services to its beneficiaries
• Improve the patient turn-around time
• Generate and maintain the EMR (electronic medical records) of all patients

The new system will improve the quality of health services and will boost the utilization of resources in a transparent manner. The waiting time of patients at hospitals will be minimized and the medical records will be available to the team of doctors at all times. 
 

Gajanan Mallya, General Manager, South Central Railway zone explained that the implementation of the hospital management system will develop a good amount of data, with the electronic medical records, and will help the medical authorities not just in curative procedures, but also preventive medical systems. The project is expected to economize the drug management and help in better utilization of resource management.

Puneet Chawla, Chairman, and Managing Director, RailTel Corporation stated that the implementation of the hospital management project will benefit all stakeholders with the integration of headquarter hospitals and ancillary centers. The project is likely to have more than 20 modules and will benefit the medical fraternity and hospital beneficiaries.

Currently, three modules of the HMIS, namely, registration, OPD doctor desk, and pharmacy are being taken up. These three modules are going to be implemented on a trial basis at the Central Hospital, Lallaguda, and will further be implemented across all health units over the South Central Railway zone.

The registration module covers the integration of the unique medical identity card (UMID) with automatic validation of the beneficiary. The OPD desk module covers patient examination and diagnosis details which will help in generating the electronic medical records. The pharmacy module helps in easily dispensing the medicines prescribed by the doctor and optimise inventory management.