BMC Begins HMIS Pilot at Sion Hospital, Plans Digital Rollout Across Civic Hospitals

BMC is further working to integrate Aadhaar, ABHA and Ayushman Bharat-linked services with HMIS.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has begun implementing a Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital (Sion Hospital) aimed at expanding digital healthcare services across Mumbai’s civic-run hospitals.

The system is currently operational at the OPD level at Sion Hospital and will gradually be strengthened and introduced across other BMC hospitals.

The HMIS is currently being piloted in the hospital’s outpatient department (OPD), with digital registration and electronic payment options introduced as part of the initial phase.

As part of the initiative, patients can make payments through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), while 10 point-of-sale (POS) machines have been installed at the hospital to support digital transactions.

The digital payment component is aimed at reducing reliance on manual processes and improving the efficiency of registration and payment-related services.

The civic body is also planning to expand HMIS to digitise various hospital services, including consultations, prescriptions, diagnostic investigations and online payments for services such as CT and MRI scans.

The wider HMIS implementation is expected to create digital health records for patients, enabling repeat visitors to access their existing medical information during subsequent visits, reducing the need to register from the beginning or carry physical medical documents.

BMC is further working to integrate Aadhaar, ABHA and Ayushman Bharat-linked services with HMIS.

The civic administration also plans to expand online payment facilities across multiple counters to streamline patient-facing services.

Alongside hospital digitisation, the civic administration is introducing an SMS-based system for birth and death certificates. Applicants will receive a unique application number through SMS and another alert once the certificate is ready for collection at a Citizen Facilitation Centre.

Furthermore, the civic body is exploring AI-based speech-to-text technology that can convert doctor-patient conversations into digital medical records.

During a review of the HMIS pilot at Sion Hospital, Additional Municipal Commissioner Lavangre Varma stated that speech-to-text AI technology would be the next phase of HMIS.

“The doctor should not have to type everything. Whatever is spoken during the consultation can get automatically translated into text and become a record,” Varma added.

The proposed application is intended to enable doctors to dictate inputs directly into digital medical records, which is expected to reduce manual documentation and improve the overall accessibility of patient data.

As per earlier reports, BMC signed an MoU with technology company Fractal to explore solutions related to these challenges.

The current pilot at Sion Hospital serves as a testing ground for a broader municipal strategy.

According to the civic body, the system is already operational in various maternity homes and Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray (HBT) clinics.

BMC plans to extend the system to its major hospitals, with the civic administration targeting full HMIS integration across city hospitals by April next year.

The latest pilot builds on BMC’s ongoing initiative to modernise Mumbai's public healthcare system through the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), digital technologies, and hospital infrastructure upgrades.

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