Srinagar, Apr 17: Jammu and Kashmir government has rolled out scan and share OPD registration facilities at six health care facilities, while five more hospitals will have this service soon.
As per the officials, six hospitals have already started this facility which include Government Medical College Hospital Jammu, SMGS Hospital Jammu, Government Hospital Gandhi Nagar Jammu, Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital Srinagar, LD Hospital Srinagar and JLNM Srinagar. The other hospitals where this facility will be started include Children Hospital, Srinagar, District Hospital Pulwama, District Hospital Samba, District Hospital Ganderbal, District Hospital Udhampur and SKIMS Soura.
Secretary, Health and Medical Education, Bhupinder Kumar told Greater Kashmir that the Scan and Share facility is a part of the on-going Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and is aimed to bring ease to the patients and attendants. “It will gradually pave the way to a free hospital set up in J&K,” he said.
The QR code-based rapid OPD registration service is being implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA) under its flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).
This service will enable patients to scan the QR code of the facility and share their demographic details and Health records. The QRs codes are displayed at multiple places in the waiting and registration area, patients can easily identify them and scan them using their smart phones for faster OPD registration. Once a patient who’s Scan and Share number is displayed on the screen arrives at the counter, the operator retrieves the demographic details from the system based on the token number and prints the OPD card. Managing Director, National Health Mission, Ayushi Sudan told Greater Kashmir that this facility is very beneficial for the patients as it will minimise the problem of long queues at health facilities.
“We have already started the process in six hospitals and now we will roll out this service to five more hospitals,” she said. She said that this facility will be available in all the GMCs, District Hospitals and even in Public Health Centres, where there is a huge rush of patients. Dr Shafqat Khan, Additional Mission Director Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission J&K said Greater Kashmir process will drastically reduce the wait time for patients and ensures accurate data entry into HMIS, doing away with the need for patients to stand in incessantly long queues.
“Patients only visit the counter for any applicable payments and avail their OPD card. “Under the ABDM, we’re using technology to simplify processes and make healthcare more efficient. The QR Code based rapid OPD registration service is a step in this direction,” officials said.