Due To The Lack Of A HIPPA Or Equivalent Laws In India, Going Digital In Healthcare Is Not That Simple

Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute is India’s one of the most advanced tertiary care facilities. As the flagship social initiative of the Reliance Group headed by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, the hospital is designed to raise India’s global standing as a healthcare hub, with emphasis on excellence in clinical services, diagnostic facilities and research

Going Digital in the Healthcare vertical and the unique challenges…

Due to the lack of a HIPPA or equivalent laws in India, going digital in healthcare is not that simple like in Banking which has regulations from RBI and other financial institutions. However, that does not mean that Healthcare institutions will not do digital. Most of the modern hospitals have an active EMR inside and physicians/surgeons enter complete patient history. And as a strategic move Pharmacy and Path Lab and Radiology cannot work without EMR sending an order to them. Besides this, we have online appointments and path reports etc. through the website.

A phased approach to Digital….

The board of governors wanted a phased plan to go digital as there is no clear legal mandate on what can be done or not done. Hence, it has been a slow journey. As described in the first question, we did cover the traditional business and went online. The second phase is now being done, wherein if the patient has done his online appointment and paid, and they have the hospital app, using beacons directly to the OPD cluster. Once at the cluster with the app, the patient will be displayed in the queue using FIFO method. This phase eliminates the need for standing in the queue for payment, thereby allowing online payments and registering yourself at the cluster. All phones after 2009, have inbuilt beacons and the hospital app will use the WiFI beacon and the phone beacon to reduce the wait time. Also, Beacons will be used to guide the patients to the cluster using the phone (Google map style...) and thereby reducing the time to get to the cluster The last phase will be making patient records available to them online. The thought process has been initiated but the load of work needs to be done before getting into it.