An ABDM readiness checklist for a small hospital

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission in eight steps: registries, ABHA, consent, and what to ask your software vendor.

What ABDM is

A national set of registries and a health information exchange. Patients hold an ABHA (a health account number); hospitals and doctors are registered in the Health Facility Registry and the Healthcare Professionals Registry; records move between providers only with the patient's consent, through a consent manager.

The checklist

1. Register the hospital in the Health Facility Registry with its address, type and services. 2. Have each doctor register in the Healthcare Professionals Registry; it needs their council registration. 3. Decide who at the desk creates and links ABHA numbers, and train them. 4. Put an ABHA QR at the desk so patients with the app can share their profile. 5. Make sure your software stores consent per purpose and can produce records as FHIR bundles. 6. Ask the vendor which ABDM milestones they are certified for and in which sandbox. 7. Plan what to do for patients without an ABHA: nothing changes for them. 8. Name one person to own the rollout.

What to ask a vendor

Are your notes structured, so bundles are produced without retyping? Where are consent artefacts stored? What happens when a consent expires? Which milestones are certified, and when? Can a patient without an ABHA still be registered normally?

Vaidyah's answers: notes are structured and signed; ABHA linking is in the registration screen today; the exchange connection and consent manager come in Release 2 and are certified in the sandbox first.