The Ministry of Information Technology (IT) has automated the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) with a cost of Rs 39 for efficient delivery of health services. Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and Minister of Health Muhammad Nasir Khan inaugurated the system on Monday.
The ceremony was also attended by IT Secretary Farrakh Qayyum, PIMS Executive Director Fazal-e-Hadi and other senior officials. Speaking on the occasion, the IT minister said the government was implementing an e-government plan with projects worth millions of rupees to introduce efficient and service-oriented governance at all tiers.
The Ministry of Information Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Health has completed the automation of PIMS and fully equipped it with computers, printers, and a MIS application, including patient care, inventory and stores.
"The essence of e-government is to improve the life of the citizens, as evident from this project. With the introduction of MIS system at PIMS, patients would get better service as now the patients do not have to shuttle between departments inquiring about their test results," he said. The IT ministry would also provide 100 more computers and accessories to PIMS to extend the project to all its allied departments, he added.
The minister said the automation of PIMS was the first of its kind in any public sector hospital and would serve as a role model for other hospitals where this system could be replicated to bring in more efficiency in the day-to-day processes.
Addressing the ceremony, Minister for Health Naseer Khan said the project has been very beneficial for the hospital in the recent months, especially in the wake of earthquake. Because of this, the hospital had mobilised nearly 27,000 doctors, nurses and paramedics with the help of WHO and other agencies with tremendous precision and efficiency, he added.
Earlier, the ministers also visited various departments and inspected online operations, business processes, networking and computing facilities, including registration, laboratory, radiology, blood bank, medical stores and various OPDs.
PIMS executive director Dr Fazal-e-Hadi told the ministers that the computerisation of the hospital processes had improved transparency and efficiency of various administrative departments besides contributing to considerable savings in diagnostic procedures.
He said that every patient was now being assigned a unique number to help track down all related activity, including past medical history, radiology and laboratory results.