Kashmir: How J&K govt’s QR-based OPD registration system has helped cut down queues at hospitals

IOK - Indian Occupied Kashmir Jammu & Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Technology has come in handy for the Jammu and Kashmir government to cut down queues at hospitals and provide succor to the patients.

The government has introduced a QR code system for OPD registration in a bid to cut down queues and waiting time at hospitals.

Under the system, the patients scan the QR code present at the hospital premise with their mobile phone using a camera/ABHA App/Aarogya Setu/or any other ABDM enabled App. As a one-time activity, the patients then generate their ABHA number (if they do not already have one) and finally share their profile details with the facility.

“Once the profile is shared, the hospital provides a token number or a queue number. For the ease of patients, the token generated is sent as a notification to the patient’s selected app and is also displayed on the screens placed at the counters. The patient can go to the registration counter, as per their token number, and directly collect their outpatient slip (OPD Slip) for doctor consultation as their details are already present at the registration counter. This saves time and effort for manual data entry and makes the whole process faster, accurate, and efficient,” MyGov said.

Jammu and Kashmir government has introduced this facility at 55 hospitals so far. The government intends to cover all the hospitals in the union territory in a phased manner.

“It (QR code facility) has been started in more than 55 institutions today. So far we have covered tertiary, district, and sub-district level hospitals. We are taking it to the primary health care center level,” said Dr. Shafaqat Khan, OSD and in charge of the initiative.

Dr. Khan said the process has helped in cutting down the queues at the hospitals to a large extent. “We will ensure there are no queues. A token system is generated through this QR code and patients can turn up at the hospital as mentioned,” he said.

Dr. Khan said more than 550 hospitals and other health institutions will be covered under this initiative.

“We are carrying out this process systematically. Our goal is to cover all the health institutions. There is no deadline but we are taking up the institutions one by one,” he said.__thekashmirmonitor.net