Going paperless, DMCH to shift to electronic medical record

As part of its Golden Jubilee celebrations, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) has decided to save trees by going paperless.

As part of the process, the hospital will shift to electronic medical record system and all patient-related data would be available online.

Under the first phase of the project, the pharmacy department has been computerised totally, and now patients could get their medical history just on a click. Besides, X-ray, cardiography, etc., will be provided on CDs.

Also, registration counter, files making process, OPD, laboratories, pharmacy, patients ward, discharge counter, etc., will get interconnected. No separate files, papers, slips for describing some tests will be used, as these instructions could be shared with other departments online. Besides, paper files will be replaced by plastic cards that will store all information of patients.

For example, when a doctor will prescribe some tests to a patient, departments concerned will get to know the type of tests through the computerised system. Later, the test results would be uploaded online for the reference of the attending doctor.

Dr Daljeet Singh, principal, DMCH, said, “Going paperless is the need of the hour. By computerising the whole process, on the one hand we will save lots of time and energy and on the other hand lots of paper used in the process could be saved.”

“We visited hospitals in various cities like Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore to see the feasibility of such system. A visit to a medical institute in Chennai helped us realise that we, too, could implement a computerised system,” Dr Singh added.

The principal further said though the system would not be 100% paperless, as during discharge, patient would be provided discharge papers mentioning all details of treatment. But still a lot of paper would be saved through this initiative, he added.