Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya has already made a name for itself as a super-specialty hospital for children not only in Delhi but across the country. The hospital provides OPD, indoor, and emergency medical services for children. It's taken steps to provide doctors with state-of-the art facilities for research in pediatric medicine, and automated the laboratory and operation theatre with latest medical technologies. The hospital also houses a modern library with the latest research material and has developed various sub-speciality treatments for children.

In its attempt to further modernise the hospital and to provide latest technology-enabled services to its patients, the management team has begun to take the help of information technology. It has started automating various departments, and in order to automate processes such as store, OPD, billing and other operations, it has deployed Hospital Management Information Systems from Srishti Software Applications (P) Ltd.

Updating Legacy-based Environment

To keep track of the inventory, the hospital had to do everything manually. To serve OPD patients the people sitting in the counter have to manually enter the data and there was no systematic procedure to check the history of patients. There were instances of duplication of data in the computers and manual entry process was also cumbersome. Says K. Kalra, Medical Superintendent (Project in Charge), “To serve patients better one should not only provide better medical facilities but also enhance the process of operation. Therefore we felt the need for a proper management system that would take care of our day-to-day operations and at the same time help us in enhance our services.”

The hospital was in need of such a system that would help it to automate various processes, along with fulfilling its demand to handle future growth. As it is funded by the Government of NCT Delhi, getting approval was a tedious task. After getting approval from the government to upgrade its legacy-based IT infrastructure, the team in charge of the project decided to go for a hospital management information system. Earlier a store inventory software from a local vendor was being used, and this wasn't serving their purpose well.

Srishti Scores Over Others

To implement a proper solution the hospital opted for a transparent tender process. Though there were other prominent vendors involved in the tender process, the team decided to go with Srishti Software. Explains Kalra, “We evaluated the solutions of other major vendors but it was Srishti that scored. They have already good customer acquisitions in the healthcare segment and their solution is typically suitable for our environment and matched our requirements. The price was also accurate. There are other criteria that we kept in mind during the evaluation process, and Srishti fulfilled most of them. Therefore we decided to go with them.”

The implementation process was very smooth. The hospital's IT staff, along with people from Srishti, deployed the solution. The solution is being implemented phase by phase. In the first stage it was deployed in the much-needed inventory department and OPD. Later on it automated the store and purchase department. During the first phase of deployment the hospital has been able to upgrade the processes in a few days.

Better Services for Patients

Post deployment, the board members have noticed that the concerned departments are now operating in a systematic manner. The user friendly environment of the Srishti solution has helped the IT staff train users without much effort. The heads of the concerned departments (such as store and purchase) are now able to get a clear picture of different stocks and are better prepared to meet rush-hour demands.

“Though it is too early to reach conclusions about the ROI, we've noticed drastic changes in our operation style and we've been able to reduce data duplication and manual errors. Though we have invested very little we are now planning to deploy the same solution in other departments and also purchase more licenses for already deployed departments. The entire scenario at the OPD counters has changed,” says Kalra. The hospital is also looking at deploying some electronic record keeping solutions in the near future.