Mumbai’s civic healthcare system is set for a major digital transformation, with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) planning to eliminate manual patient registration across all its hospitals by April 1, 2027.
The civic body is expanding its Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) to streamline hospital services, reduce waiting times and improve access to patient information. The system is currently being piloted at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, popularly known as Sion Hospital.
🔹लोकमान्य टिळक सर्वसाधारण रूग्णालय (शीव) येथे 'हॉस्पिटल मॅनेजमेंट इन्फॉर्मेशन सिस्टिम' (HMIS) या प्रणालीच्या प्रायोगिक तत्वावरील अंमलबजावणीला सुरूवात झाली आहे. पहिल्या टप्प्यात बाह्यरूग्णांची नोंदणी करणे आणि शुल्क अदा करण्यासाठी डिजिटिल पेमेंटची सुविधा उपलब्ध करून देणे,… pic.twitter.com/dYRhCuuzdD
— माझी Mumbai, आपली BMC (@mybmc) September 8, 2026
Additional Municipal Commissioner (Health) Prajakta Verma Lavangare recently reviewed the HMIS implementation at Sion Hospital, which handles around 15,000 outpatients daily. Digital registration is expected to reduce queues at registration counters and make the admission process faster.
The hospital has also introduced UPI-based payments for OPD registration, while 10 point-of-sale (POS) machines have been installed to facilitate cashless transactions.
The BMC plans to expand HMIS beyond registration to include consultations, prescriptions, medical histories and diagnostic investigations such as MRI, CT scans and sonography. Payments for these services will also gradually be brought under the digital system.
Once fully implemented, patients will have access to digital health records, reducing the need to carry paper reports and allowing doctors to retrieve previous medical information during follow-up visits.
The civic administration is also working towards integrating Aadhaar, ABHA and Ayushman Bharat-linked services with HMIS.
The next phase could include artificial intelligence-powered speech-to-text technology. The proposed system would convert information spoken during doctor-patient consultations into text and incorporate it into electronic medical records.
The technology could reduce the amount of time doctors spend typing and documenting consultations, allowing them to focus more on patients. However, the BMC is assessing challenges such as background noise and the high volume of consultations at government hospitals.
The civic body has signed an MoU with IT company Fractal to explore solutions for implementing the technology effectively.
The BMC is also upgrading birth and death certificate services. An SMS-based system will provide applicants with a unique application number and updates when certificates are ready for collection.
The civic body is considering granting registrar-level powers to hospital deans so birth certificates can be issued directly at hospitals. This could help meet the three-day deadline for issuing birth certificates.
Alongside digitisation, the BMC plans to accelerate renovation and expansion of peripheral hospitals to bring more healthcare services closer to residential areas and reduce pressure on major tertiary hospitals.
Other priorities include establishing component blood banks and digitising the Central Procurement Department.
With HMIS targeted across all civic hospitals, the BMC aims to create a more efficient, paperless and transparent healthcare system by 2027.
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