Like most small and mid-size Indian hospitals, Kasturi Hospital ran on paper-based records, which quietly undermined patient safety. In a 45-bed hospital running OPD, IPD, ICU, NICU, dialysis and 24×7 casualty, a returning or trauma patient’s history was slow or impossible to retrieve in an emergency; earlier investigations were repeated because old reports could not be found in time; and allergies and drug histories were scattered across files, raising medication-error risk. Continuity broke at every shift change, handover and consultant change.<br><br>
Paper also created an operational and medico-legal burden: years of files to store and protect, and risky retrieval of old records (for example, when a relative needed the death certificate of a patient who had died years earlier). A digital solution was required to make the complete record available at the point of care, to protect continuity and safety independent of any one individual, and to meet the hospital’s lifelong medico-legal and NABH record-retention responsibilities, affordably and at small-hospital scale.<br><br>
Stakeholders most affected: treating doctors and consultants, nursing staff, front-desk/admin and billing teams, and above all patients, whose safety and continuity depended on information paper could not reliably deliver.<br><br>
Key NABH aspects impacted: medication safety and adverse-drug-reaction monitoring; completeness and legibility of medical records; discharge-summary timeliness; continuity and coordination of care; investigation turnaround; and documentation, traceability and audit readiness.
