Karnataka tops in verified health facility registry; TN, Odisha at bottom

Low saturation rates delaying HFR process: Officials

Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh are the top five states in terms of the absolute number of health care facilities verified in the Health Facility Registry (HFR), according to data available on the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) dashboard.

However, three out of these five states lag behind in saturation rates compared to the facilities enumerated in the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) data, which was established in 2018 to collect information on all public and private health care institutions across the country.

The HFR is a new repository of health facilities that aims to create a national digital health register of both public and private health facilities. This includes hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories, imaging centres, and pharmacies of both modern and traditional systems of medicine.

 

Among the top five states with verified health care facilities in the HFR, only Karnataka and Rajasthan have covered more than 50 per cent of the institutions in the NHRR database.

Karnataka is the only state with the highest number of verified facilities in the country at 60,711 and 100 per cent saturation of the facilities in the state according to NHRR data. It is followed by Tripura and Chhattisgarh, which have coverage saturation rates of 81.2 per cent and 69.1 per cent, respectively.

Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, is the second-best-performing state in terms of absolute numbers, with 59,438 verified facilities. However, this only covers 33.3 per cent of the state’s 178,715 facilities in the NHRR dataset.

Similarly, the coverage of verified facilities in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh stands at 14.7 per cent and 48.9 per cent, respectively.

At the bottom of the list are Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi, which have the lowest levels of facility coverage.

While Delhi has verified 1,590 facilities, representing 4.3 per cent of the 37,228 facilities in the NHRR dataset, Tamil Nadu’s coverage stands at 2.3 per cent, with only 1,694 verified out of 73,941 facilities in the state, according to NHRR data.

Odisha has verified just six facilities out of 16,867, placing it last on the list.

 

Low saturation rates: A persistent issue

“Low saturation rates under the HFR are affecting the timely implementation of the register in many states, with many public health facilities still awaiting registration,” an official said.

To address this issue, the National Health Authority (NHA), which is also the implementing body of ABDM, wrote to all state governments in August 2024 to fast-track the registration of state-run public health facilities.

“The NHA also offers a solution for bulk uploading of public facilities into the ABDM ecosystem by state mission directors. In this regard, we request that you either make use of the bulk upload feature or at least convey instructions to all state government-owned institutions to get themselves registered,” said the communication from Basant Garg, additional chief executive officer of the NHA, to all state governments.

An official added that the government has previously asked states to expedite the verification process for registered health institutions, as verification is important to ensure that these hospitals are not fraudulent.

As of October 2, 338,177 facilities have been verified in the HFR, of which 56.94 per cent are government facilities and 43.06 per cent are privately owned.