To facilitate ABHA-based scans in outpatient departments (OPDs), several key measures have been undertaken by the Government of India. Any hospital which is registered on Health Facility Registry (HFR) and uses Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) compliant Hospital Management Information System (HMIS), can generate a QR Code. Patients coming in the facility can scan the QR code for registering for the OPD of the facility.

National Health Authority (NHA) and State governments have deployed this facility in more than 5,800 public health care institutions. For these facilities, regular trainings, hand holding exercises have been undertaken at the level of State government, CMOs, facility manager. The IEC/videos/poster/banner etc. have been made available to the facilities who want to provide this QR based Scan and Share OPD registration. Additionally, patient awareness campaigns are conducted to familiarize them with the ABHA registration process. To further encourage adoption, financial incentives are offered to the health facilities and Digital Solution Companies through the Digital Health Incentive Scheme (DHIS) for every Scan and Share registration in the hospitals.

The "Scan and Share" initiative focuses on managing queues in busy healthcare settings. It can be used in any healthcare facility including PHC, U-CHC, or DH for OPD registration of the patients. While it serves as an initial step, as registration of patients, it opens up the possibility of health record linking to the ABHA of the patients including the diagnostic reports. Once the records are linked with the ABHA of the patient, mobile phone applications enable sharing of such records to other health care providers.

Currently, the Scan and Share registration is actively used in more than 2400 hospitals and more than 1.80 lakh patients are benefitted by the program every day. Since its launch in October 2022, more than 3.87 crore patients have taken benefit of the said program. The Scan and Share registration is incentivized by the NHA under DHIS scheme. To further promote ABHA-based Scan and Share registration in OPDs, another use-case of ‘Scan and Pay’ is piloted, through which the patients would be able to pay for the diagnostic/lab/registration billing through the mobile phone application itself without waiting to pay for the diagnostic/lab services before providing samples.

To ensure affordability and accessibility of diagnostic technologies in public healthcare settings, various steps have been taken by the Government of India. Diagnostic software solutions and Lab Management Information Systems (LMIS) can integrate with ABDM which enables them to provide digital lab reports directly to the patients. In order to integrate with ABDM, the diagnostic software solution providers can register on the ABDM Sandbox to enable and operationalize ABDM related functionalities on their software solutions and extend the provision of these benefits to patients. As on 26.07.2024, more than 219 partners are integrated with ABDM, out of which 15 are ABDM-integrated LMIS.

To ensure effective and seamless patient journey, ABDM ensures that once a patient registers for an OPD or lab test using their ABHA, the process becomes more streamlined to capture/store diagnostics reports which were captured during respective diagnostic tests, their reports may be directly pushed to their Personal Health Record (PHR) Application. This digital delivery of lab results ensures that patients can access their reports easily and remotely, eliminating the need for them to return to the healthcare facility to pick up test results. This not only enhances accessibility but also reduces the logistical and financial burden on patients, thereby contributing to the overall affordability and efficiency of public healthcare services.

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Shri Prataprao Jadhav stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

****

MV

  HFW/Update on ABHA Based Scans in OPDs/30 July 2024/5