All district HQ hospitals to be computerised

Patients at government hospitals in the State will have to wait further for computerisation of medical records, as the State Health Department is yet to commence automation of healthcare data at the hospitals in district headquarters in the State. However, officials assured that the process would start from next month itself and complete by the end of the year.

As part of this project, patient records, including particular case-sheets, from 25 government hospitals district headquarters and also the medical college hospitals would be computerised. The Health Management Information System is being undertaken by the State Directorate of Medical Services along with Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project.

After the work on the information management system, which would enable computerisation at healthcare institutions in the State, was taken up in association with the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) five years ago, a fund of Rs 150 crore was allotted for it. The IT major had developed the software, which was implemented at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and few taluk hospitals in Tamil Nadu.

The online system would help store the details of the number of patients, records of pregnant women who come for regular check-up, surgeries, vaccination activities, case sheets along with laboratory test recordsand screening reports.

Under this system, patients would be given a unique identification number. After that, the details about the diagnosis, prescription and follow-up treatment would be stored in the system under this number. For further check-ups, the patient can consult the doctor with the automated slip with the unique ID number, using which the doctor can retrieve the records.

“The project to computerise medical records of patients will start from July and will be completed in a phased manner. The Primary Health Centres and taluk hospitals in the State have been automated and the same will be implemented in the district headquarter government hospitals. The medical college hospitals in the State, too, will be similarly computerised in the later phases of the project,” said Dr Mohanan, the director of Medical and Rural Health Services.

Currently, the district headquarter hospitals only record the pathology reports online. However, even these reports are inaccessible to the doctors for follow-up treatment and have to be produced by the patients themselves. To monitor all medical records, the State Health Department is planning to set up one computer in each ward and unit. “The project is in the planning stage now. It will be launched soon, first at the district level hospitals and then at tertiary care hospitals,” said Health Secretary Beela Rajesh. She added that the government would computerise records at all healthcare facilitiesin the State.