AIIMS revamps OPD appointment system

People who wish to avail medical services at Out Patient Department (OPD) in AIIMS will now be able to book appointment of doctors online or through mobile phones.
The new system known as 'IVR Based appointment system' makes it possible to book an appointment without human interaction from anywhere using mobile phone.
Old patients having UHID (Unique Health Identification number) can make appointments by dialling 09266092660.
"New OPD patients who want to visit AIIMS can pre-register themselves to avail its services through the website, following which they will be allotted a temporary UHID number," Head IT and Additional Professor Nuerosurgery AIIMS Deepak Agrawal said.

However, the patients will have to visit AIIMS once for physical identification and get their permanent UHID number, through which they can later book their appointments through phone, he added.
This system is currently available in two languages, English and Hindi. Based on the lines of the railway booking system, there will also be a 25 per cent 'tatkal quota' for new walk-in patients for each department.

With effect from September 1, taking an appointment has been made compulsory for both old and new patients to help curtail the problems of crowding and queue-jumping.
"AIIMS has been catering to an ever increasing patient volume and although the statistics seem overwhelming a lot can be done to improve patient care," Director AIIMS, MC Mishra said.

Another service being offered in the emergency department is the Patient Display System (PDS) where all the details of the patients regarding their consultation, investigation and status run on a screen, which gets updated real-time by nurses, Agrawal added.
These services including PDS, IVR based appointment system and Live Patient Statistics Display (LPSD) will be inaugurated by Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh tomorrow at the 4th International Conference and Workshop on "Cost Effective Use of Technology in E-health care".