NHA under ABDM scheme is enabling digital interventions to bring efficiency to healthcare services
Mar 28, 2023
New Delhi [India], March 28 : The National Health Authority (NHA) under its Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) scheme is enabling digital interventions for bringing efficiency to the delivery of healthcare services, said an official release on Tuesday.
One such intervention is the Scan and Share service that is enabling instant registrations for patients at OPD (Out-patient Department) blocks of participating hospitals, it said.
The utilization of the service has crossed 10 Lakh patient registrations within six months of its launch. It is notable to see that the service clocked 5 Lakh patient registrations only last month (23 Feb 2023). The impact and acceptance of the Scan and Share service are evident from the steep rise in numbers, added the press release.
Speaking about the Scan and Share service, the CEO, NHA said, "ABDM aims to build a seamless healthcare delivery ecosystem using digital solutions. With the Scan and Share feature, hospitals are offering digital registration services to their patients via direct sharing of their ABHA profile. This is helping patients get instant registration tokens without having to stand in queues and without entering many details. Currently, the per-day average is about 25,000 OPD tokens. We intend to cross 1 Lakh tokens per day soon. Further, we plan to extend the feature for other interactions between the patients and healthcare service providers."
The Scan and Share service works on a simple modality of QR-code-based direct information sharing. The participating hospitals display their unique QR codes at their patient registration counters. The patients use their smartphones to scan the QR codes using a supported mobile app for the service (currently available in ABHA app, Aarogya Setu, Driefcase, Paytm, Bajaj Health and Ekacare).
The patient then creates their ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) or logs in to their existing ABHA account. After logging in, the patient can directly share their ABHA profile with the hospital to complete their registration without having to fill out the form physically. This paperless registration results in instant token generation thereby helping the patient skip the long queue by simply using their ABHA.
This service was introduced by NHA on 6th Oct 2022 at Lady Hardinge Medical College (LHMC) Sucheta Kriplani Hospital (SSKH) Hospital in New Delhi. Since then, over 443 hospitals across 147 districts have adopted the service and are helping patients save their time spent in OPD registration queues on a daily basis. AIIMS - Raipur, NDMC Charak Palika Hospital - New Delhi, LHMC & SSKH - New Delhi, Sir C V Raman General Hospital - Bengaluru and L B R N Joint Hospital, Kanpur Road - Lucknow are helping more than 25,000 patients daily using ABHA-based Scan and Share functionality.
More statistics related to the implementation of the Scan and Share service are available on the ABDM Public Dashboard https://dashboard.abdm.gov.in/abdm/, it said.
To further promote the adoption of Scan and Share service by hospitals and the Digital Solution Companies (DSCs) offering their technology to the health facilities, ABDM has also included Scan and Share transactions under the Digital Health Incentive Scheme (DHIS). The health facilities offering ABHA-based Scan and Share service also stand a chance to win incentives of up to Rs. 4 crores under DHIS based on the number of ABHA-based digital health transactions they achieve, the official release said.
