The National Health Authority (NHA) has completed a comprehensive review of digital-health progress under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and related efforts in all 38 districts of Bihar, signalling a major stride toward a fully digitised public-healthcare system across the state.
Under the review led by NHA CEO Sunil Barnwal and the state’s Health Secretary, officials assessed district-level implementation of digital tools including QR-based registration through ABHA ID, digital OPD slips, real-time patient tracking, and electronic lab and X-ray report systems.
The review also checked the integration of paperless pharmacy dispensing systems and automated updates for prescriptions and drug issuance.
As part of the evaluation, the leadership underlined the need to extend the digital patient-journey beyond outpatient visits by integrating in-patient (IPD) services. They stressed that a greater proportion of IPD cases be routed through public hospitals under the scheme, thereby improving utilization and oversight.
Further, they flagged the importance of enrolling all private healthcare professionals under the Health Professional Registry and ensuring that every hospital—public or private—is registered in the Health Facility Registry. For private hospitals, adopting an ABDM-compliant Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) was highlighted as a priority.
In a visit accompanying the review team to a major hospital in the state capital, a fully integrated digital workflow was demonstrated — from QR-based ABHA registration to digital OPD slips, electronic diagnostic reports and paperless pharmacy dispensing. The demonstration underlined the tangible improvements in patient handling, record-keeping, and operational efficiency across care facilities.
Officials also used the session to review the roadmap for expanding the benefits of the umbrella public-health schemes including the national health-insurance programme Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) in tandem with ABDM’s digital-infrastructure efforts. The goal: a future-ready, inclusive, transparent healthcare system capable of reaching even remote or under-served districts.
This large-scale push keeps Bihar among the top states in India in digital-health adoption, with reports indicating that over 90 percent of government hospitals in the state now practice paperless operations, and most OPD registrations are handled online or via QR-code-based “scan and share” systems.
As the NHA’s review concludes, the state appears poised to extend digital integration deeper to inpatient services, private providers, diagnostics, pharmacies while also strengthening institutional registries, aiming to transform public health delivery across the length and breadth of Bihar.
