Requirements of hospital management system in India - Aadhar as identifying document, support for GST, NABH accreditation

2. Aravind Kejriwal recently directed the health officials in
Delhi to develop a hospital management system of
global standards. While hospital management systems
have been in use for a while, there are currently no rules
or regulations that lay down the standards for them in
India. In the US electronic health records are regulated by
the Health Information Technology for Economic and
Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) and the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA Act).

3. In India, even though only the IT Act of 2000 applies for electronic health records,
the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have recognized the need for electronic
health records and periodically issues standards for them, for the purpose of
promoting interoperability, technical innovation, participation by vendors and other
stakeholders, and to support the evolution and timely maintenance of adopted
standards.
Besides these guidelines, some other key features also play a key role in making a
hospital management system best suited for the Indian healthcare sector. Let’s see
what the specific requirements for a hospital management system in India are.

4. Aadhar as an identifying document.
According to the recommendations by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
the electronic health record of a patient must have the provision to include UIDAI
Aadhar number as the preferred identifier. In case Aadhar information is
unavailable, the ministry recommends the use of a local identifier (as per the
scheme of the healthcare service provider) and a photo ID issued by Central or
State government.
The system should have provision to accept a minimum of two IDs when Aadhar ID is not available. In the
case of unidentified patients, a local identifier may be used, and confirmed identifiers inserted later when
available. The government recently opened doors for integrating Aadhar with any software, but the
software needs to meet certain criteria. While the recommendations are not implemented on a mandatory
basis, it may become so in the future and therefore it is better to get software that follows them.

5. Support for GST
The Government of India recently passed the Goods and Services
Act(GST) and many healthcare services come under its ambit. One
of the important and commonly used aspects of hospital
management software is billing.
There are software that carries out the sole purpose of billing, while most hospital database
management systems come integrated with it. With the implementation of GST, along with
other service providers, healthcare providers such as hospitals and clinics are required to
comply with the norms of GST. So it is important that a hospital management software is able
to handle the billing according to GST norms, and integrated with GST filing software.

6. NABH accreditation
Formed in 2005, National Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers is
part of Quality Council of India and is the principal accreditation for hospitals
in India. NABH accreditation is becoming more and more important with the
rise in medical tourism and patient awareness about their rights.
Unlike ISO certification, NABH accreditation is specific to the healthcare industry and focuses on
competency in terms of staff, equipment, premises, etc. For NABH accreditation of a hospital, the
information management system of the hospital should meet the necessary criteria.

7. This includes that the records of every patient are complete and accurate. It is necessary that
the policy measures are in place to ensure the data integrity, confidentiality and security. A
hospital management system plays a crucial role in this. An HMS that can safely manage
the patient data in a safe and secure manner, and keep it updated in a timely manner can
make this process much easier. The HMS must assure data redundancy and integrity and
should be secure against data loss or theft, for the hospital to easily achieve the NABH
accreditation. The HMS system must be capable of generating the data points that must be
submitted for NABH accreditation.

8. Sending info to local government
Hospitals have to send certain information, such as birth rates and death
rates, to the government periodically. This is required for keeping track of
the population and related statistics. Sometimes during a disease outbreak,
government health officials will need accurate data regarding the affected
individuals to tackle the issue effectively.
One of the primary functions of a hospital management system is the effective management of data. It should
be capable of storing, retrieving and updating the information easily. With a system that can easily sort
through the relevant data, the required data can be collected and sent to the health officials easily and in a
timely manner. Without an effective system, the hospital staff will have to manually go through a mountain of
data, wasting time and resources.
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