HMIS meaning: the Health Ministry reporting portal What the portal collects, who reports to it, and what it has to do with a private clinic.

HMIS, the Health Management Information System, is the Health Ministry's web portal on which health facilities across India upload facility-wise data on the services they deliver, so that the National Health Mission and other health programmes can be monitored. It runs at hmis.mohfw.gov.in. Facilities count what they did in a month, such as deliveries, immunisations, OPD visits, admissions and surgeries, and the portal rolls those numbers up from facility to block, district, state and national level.

What is HMIS?

A government reporting system. The portal's About page describes it as "a Government to Government (G2G) web-based Monitoring Information System that has been put in place by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India to monitor the National Health Mission and other Health programmes and provide key inputs for policy formulation and appropriate programme interventions". It adds: "HMIS was launched in October 2008. Currently, around 2.25 lakh health facilities (across all States/UTs) are uploading facility wise service delivery data on monthly basis."

The letters cause confusion because software vendors also say HMIS for hospital management information system, meaning hospital software. Our HIS, HMS, HMIS and EMR explainer separates the two meanings.

Where does the definition come from?

From the ministry's own portal, and from the Comptroller and Auditor General. CAG Report No. 25 of 2017, on reproductive and child health under the National Rural Health Mission, says: "The Ministry launched HMIS, a Geographical Information System enabled web-based monitoring system in October 2008 with the objective to record information on health events and check the quality of services at different levels of health care." It also says "The HMIS comprises data relating to the parameters of service delivery and infrastructure (both physical and manpower) at different levels of the health facilities."

The About page lists what is captured each month: "Service Delivery (Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health related, Immunisation family planning, Vector borne disease, Tuberculosis, Morbidity and Mortality, OPD, IPD Services, Surgeries etc. data)". Uttar Pradesh's National Health Mission synopsis of January 2017 describes the design as "moving from area wise reporting to facility based reporting", with the rule that data is "collected only from facility where service is provided", and shows separate monthly forms for sub centres, PHCs and DH/SDH/CHCs.

Does HMIS apply to a single-doctor clinic?

None of the central documents we read puts a direct HMIS duty on a private single-doctor clinic. Rule 9(v) of the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012 says every registered clinical establishment "shall maintain information and statistics in accordance with all other applicable laws", and some state rules go further. Himachal Pradesh's 2012 rules, for example, ask clinical establishments to furnish health information and statistics on national programmes to the district authorities "in form of three monthly reports". Whether your clinic reports, on what form and how often depends on your state, so ask your district health office.

What it means for a small clinic

HMIS numbers are built from registers. If the district office asks a clinic for a monthly count of OPD patients, the answer comes from the clinic's own OPD register: how many patients were seen that month, new and returning. A clinic that keeps a dated entry for every visit can produce that count in minutes. A clinic that keeps only loose slips has to reconstruct it.

Vitels does not connect to HMIS or upload anything to it. It keeps the clinic's visit records, and the clinic admin can export them as CSV at any time. See EMR software.