The National Health Authority plans to develop two digitised model hospitals in every district across India, one government-run and one private, and the NHA model digital hospitals will act as champion centres that other hospitals can study and copy. The plan is aimed at cutting the long queues, heavy paperwork and missing medical records that patients face at hospitals. An official familiar with the plan said the two centres in each district will show how digital tools can be built into day-to-day hospital work to improve efficiency and the experience of patients.
The plan builds on a model tested in Tripura, and the NHA model digital hospitals rollout will follow a phased framework that names 38 districts across 35 states and Union Territories to lead the way. A guidebook for a model digital health facility was released on 3 October 2026, setting out standard steps from patient entry to discharge, and it is described as a living document that will be refined with feedback from states and hospitals. The guidebook includes a digital-readiness assessment so that hospitals can measure where they stand before they start.
The initiative sits inside the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which was rolled out nationwide in September 2021 to build an interoperable digital health system linking hospitals, clinics, diagnostic labs and pharmacies. India has about 1.2 million health care facilities, and nearly 99 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts have been created. The NHA model digital hospitals are meant to show the rest of the system what full adoption looks like, with registration, electronic health records, diagnostics, prescriptions and pharmacy services connected through consent-based sharing of patient information.
NHA model digital hospitals and the Ayushman Bharat mission
The guidebook sets out an operational checklist for the hospitals that take part, and the NHA model digital hospitals must meet it before they can serve as examples. They must keep dedicated, stable internet connectivity and working hardware across all counters, and build integrated digital loops that connect electronic health records, nursing stations, diagnostic laboratories and in-house pharmacy dispensing. The aim is to cut queues, paperwork and repeated tests, since a patient’s record can be shared with consent instead of being rebuilt at every visit. Participating centres are expected to reach more than 95 per cent Ayushman Bharat Health Account coverage among visiting patients, alongside complete onboarding of local doctors and clinics onto national registries.
For patients, the change should be visible at the counter. Registration will use the health account, the doctor will see the record on screen, test results will flow into the same record, and the pharmacy will dispense against a digital prescription. The NHA model digital hospitals are designed to make that journey routine, so that a patient who visits twice does not have to carry paper files or repeat the same tests. The model is aimed first at the district level, where most patients first reach a hospital and where the paperwork burden is heaviest.
The National Health Authority has not disclosed a timeline or a budget for the district rollout, and the programme is understood to be part of the wider Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission framework now under discussion with state governments. Queries sent to the health ministry on the initiative went unanswered before the story was published. The NHA model digital hospitals plan is therefore a statement of intent with a framework behind it, but without a published date for when the first districts will be ready.
NHA model digital hospitals and the rollout so far
The authority has run similar pilots before. The 100 Microsites Project, launched under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, set out to build small ecosystems of clinics, nursing homes, labs and pharmacies in districts and cities where the whole patient journey is digitised. The microsites were meant to show that full adoption works at a small scale, and the new plan extends the same idea to hospitals. The NHA model digital hospitals take the microsite approach and apply it to the larger facilities that anchor each district’s health system.
The 38 districts named to lead the rollout will be the first test of whether the champion centre model can spread. If the two hospitals in each district show that digital records cut waiting times and paperwork, other hospitals in the district are expected to follow the same steps. The NHA model digital hospitals plan will be judged on that spread, and on whether the guidebook’s checklist turns into working systems rather than a document on a shelf.