All payments at AIIMS-New Delhi will go fully digital from April 1, 2023, with the premier healthcare institute introducing smartcards in addition to UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and card payments at counters.

"AIIMS New Delhi introduces #SmartCard in addition to UPI and card payments at all counters.

"All payments at AIIMS to go completely digital from April 1, 2023," it said in a tweet.

The institute has also decided to promote the use of Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) IDs for outpatient department (OPD) registrations of new and follow-up cases.

According to an office memorandum issued on November 15, this will entail adoption of the National Health Authority's (NHA) 'Scan and Share QR Code' solution in all OPDs at AIIMS-New Delhi to facilitate quick registration and provide a queue number to patients on arrival.

Dedicated counters and kiosks will be operated from at least 7 am to 10 pm to facilitate the creation of ABHA IDs for patients without a smartphone.

This project will be piloted in the new Rajkumari Amrit Kaur OPD from November 21 and taken up on a mission mode from January 1 across all OPDs of AIIMS-New Delhi.

"It has been noted that patients visiting AIIMS OPDs are standing in long queues for registration. Manual entry of patient demographics is being done for registration despite the availability of Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) with many patients.

"At the time of registration using ABHA ID OTP is often delayed. The maximum attempts to resend OTP is also limited to three times," the memorandum read.

The NHA's Scan and Share QR Code solution has shown promising results in reducing the time taken for registrations and also helped in streamlining the patient's journey on arrival at the hospital, according to the memorandum.

The solution is also biometric and face-authentication enabled to allow sharing of ABHA ID details.