The Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences here, Jharkhand's only state-run super-speciality hospital, will take the tech route to improve attendance of doctors and other staff.

The RIMS management has invited an expression of interest for supply, installation and commissioning of mobile-based time and attendance tracking system with three years operation and maintenance support.

The interested firms have been asked to submit their offers by June 9.

“The expression of interest was invited on May 8. Interested parties have been asked to respond in prescribed form available on the official website of RIMS www.rimsranchi.org with Rs 5,000 in bank guarantee,” a RIMS official said, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to brief the media.

RIMS director Dr D.K.Singh confirmed the development, saying it would keep a track on attendance of RIMS employees including doctors and other staff.

“It will help keep a tab on attendance and ensure the presence of doctors and other staff on the institute campus. It will help improve services to common people and will also improve the academic atmosphere. Apart from this, use of this device is given in the guidelines of the Medical Council of India to ensure proper work in a health institution,” Dr Singh said on Friday.

A junior doctor welcomed the idea, saying it will be of great help to ensure presence of senior doctors.

“As we grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, many senior doctors turn up twice a week while some others turn up daily but leave the campus by 1pm. This attendance system will help ensure their presence for a longer time,” said the junior doctor, who did not want to be identified for obvious reasons.

At present, RIMS uses an old-fashioned attendance register.

“Before the novel coronavirus pandemic erupted, a biometric attendance system was in use at RIMS. After the outbreak of Covid-19, the register was introduced to minimise the chance of the spread of the novel coronavirus,” a RIMS official explained.

“Mobile-based time and attendance tracking is a new system. With the help of such a system when an employee enters the office area, an Android device of the employee is automatically connected to the office Internet and a message is sent to the office server with the employee ID and local time of the device which is counted as login time of that employee. When an employee leaves the office area, a message is sent to the office server with employeeID and local time which is counted as logout time,” the official added.