Kurnool: In spite of assurances that the Kurnool Government General Hospital has set up a paperless e-hospital system, patients are still subjected to traditional procedures such as printed outpatient (OP) forms and having to wait in long queues.
Though some patients are given a registration number, they still have to wait in line.
The hospital was recognised for its implementation of the e-hospital system, aimed at eliminating the use of paper. Under the usual procedure, patients visit the hospital, queue up to obtain OP form to provide details such as name, age, village, and health issues. This process, which usually resulted in long waiting times, is common due to the large rush of patients from nearby districts.
However, the transition to a paperless system seems incomplete.
“I travelled from Kodumur due to a stomachache, but I still had to wait in the queue to get an OP ticket. To my knowledge, there's no facility that allows avoiding the OP counters," stated K. Ranganna.
The absence of a fully paperless workflow is evident across departments, as the reliance on physical outpatient slips persists. Doctors continue to use these slips for annotations and prescriptions, contradicting claims of a fully digitised system.
The e-hospital system is normally implemented across various departments, including Outpatient and inpatient departments, casualty, laboratories, store, pharmacy, operation theatre management, radiology, and several other wings. This system incorporates the use of a Queue Management App, designed to streamline the process for patients to provide demographic data for OPD registration.
This app allows patients to input their demographic information using their Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) and subsequently join the OPD queue in an assisted mode. For those who do not have an ABHA, the system includes a provision where an operator can manually add them to the queue using the “Without ABHA” option.
Dr K. Venkata Ranga Reddy, superintendent of GGH, mentioned that the e-hospital system has been in place for the last 3-4 months and has achieved government recognition. He said that paper use in the hospital, particularly in the registration process, has been minimally reduced.
