The disclosure was made at a two-day workshop on e-Hospital implementation, jointly organised by the State's Health and Medical Department and the NIC at the NTR University of Health Sciences in Vijayawada on Tuesday. The workshop was attended by superintendents of teaching hospitals and secondary care institutions, senior medical officers, and administrative officials.

NIC Deputy Director General C.J. Antony (Head of Group) and Department Head of Division Ravindra Kumar, addressing the gathering, said that of the 4,003 government hospitals across India linked to the Next Gen e-Hospital HMIS platform, Andhra Pradesh contributes 281 facilities — comprising 39 teaching and specialty hospitals, nine district hospitals, 54 area hospitals, and 179 community health centres.

The officials noted that patient records — including outpatient and inpatient treatment details, laboratory reports, and radiology results — from these hospitals are being updated in real time. Under the system, patients can access treatment at any ABDM-compliant hospital anywhere in the country, using their Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) identification number.

Accountability through technology

Health and Medical Department Secretary Saurabh Gaur said the Next Gen application was being used to strengthen accountability among doctors and paramedical staff. "We are recording attendance through a facial recognition system. Doctors and staff can review their own performance metrics online at any time," he said, adding that all medical statistics must now be routed exclusively through the HMIS application. Patient feedback on hospital services is also being gathered through an interactive voice response system (IVRS) to drive service improvements.

Speech-to-text for clinical documentation

A speech-to-text software tool has been deployed to reduce the documentation burden on physicians. The system automatically identifies ailments from doctor-patient conversations and generates medical records without requiring physicians to manually transcribe notes, officials explained.

NIC State Informatics Centre officer SVCH Subbarao said the speech-to-text pilot is currently operational at the Government General Hospitals in Guntur and Vijayawada. He also said that fully automated analysers at Narsipatnam Area Hospital and Vijayawada GGH are now integrated with the platform, enabling laboratory results to be transmitted directly to the treating physician — and to the patient's mobile phone — without manual intervention.

The workshop was also addressed by Director of Medical Education Dr. Raghunanadan and Additional DME Dr. Radhika Reddy. Superintendents of various hospitals used the occasion to raise technical issues relating to the e-Hospital system and seek redressal. Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav had issued specific directions for the implementation of the programme, officials said.