IPD Admission

Overview

IPD admission creates an in-patient encounter for a patient, marking the start of an inpatient stay. The admission form is a modal opened from the patient dashboard. Bed assignment, clinical charting, and billing are handled separately after the encounter is created.

Admission is not available on Lab or Clinic plans.

Access

From Patient Dashboard (Quick Actions)

Open the patient's record from patient management.
In the Quick Actions strip at the top, click New IPD Visit.
The admission form opens in a modal.

Direct URL

You can also navigate directly to /admin/patient/encounter/ipd/create/{patientId}.

Admission Form Fields

The admission form is a shared encounter component used for both OPD and IPD visits. When the type is "Admit," the form pre-configures certain fields for inpatient use.

Field	Required	Default	Description
MLC	Yes	FALSE	Whether this is a Medico-Legal Case. Options: FALSE (Not Medico legal case) or TRUE (Medico legal case).
Status	Yes	in-progress	Encounter status. Options: finished, in-progress, cancelled, entered-in-error, planned. For new admissions, leave as "in-progress."
Class	Yes	in-patient	Fixed to "in-patient" for IPD admissions. Not editable.
Date Of Admission	Yes	Current date/time	When the admission starts. Adjust if backdating or scheduling.
Payor	Yes	Self	Who is paying. "Self" for direct patient payment, or select from the organization's PAYOR accounts (e.g., insurance companies, corporate accounts).
Tariff Name	Yes	Default	The billing tariff to apply. Select from the organization's configured tariff names.
Policy Id	No	—	Insurance policy number, if applicable. Free-text field.
Department	Yes	General	The department responsible for the admission. Select from configured departments.
Participants	Yes	—	Multi-select of treating doctors (practitioners with "On Panel" or "Visiting" status). At least one participant is required — the form will not submit without one.

Referral Management

Below the main form, the Referral Management section allows you to:

Field	Description
Referral Doctor	Single-select from the organization's referring doctors list.
Unlisted Requester	Opens a modal to type a free-text name for a referring doctor not in the list.
Network Requests	"Based On" button — placeholder for future use.

Estimated Discharge Date

The system automatically sets an estimated discharge date 3 days from the admission date. This is not shown on the form but is stored in the encounter and can be used for bed planning.

Open Encounter Warning

If the patient already has an open encounter (in-progress), the form shows a warning:

"This patient has an open encounter in progress."

A checkbox appears: Close existing encounters and proceed. Check it to finish the existing encounter(s) and create the new admission. Without this, the API returns an error and the admission is blocked.

What the API Does

When the form is submitted to POST /api/admin/ndhm/native/encounter/create:

Checks for open encounters. If found and closeExisting=true, finishes them. If found and not closing, returns an error.
Auto-increments the organization's IPD counter (ipdMaxId) and assigns the next IPD number.
Creates the encounter in the FHIR store.
For facilities with ABDM integration, handles patient notification if the patient has a PHR address.

Note: unlike OPD visits, IPD admissions do not create doctor tokens — the token queue system is only for outpatient visits.

IPD Console

Admitted patients appear in the IPD Console — a table of all in-progress inpatients accessible from the sidebar:

Sidebar → Patient → Services → IPD Console (/admin/mis-reports/patient-stats/?onlyinpatientinprogress=true)

The console shows these columns for each admitted patient:

Column	Description
ID (MRN)	Clickable patient ID that opens the Patient Dashboard
Facility ID	Organization-specific facility identifier
Name	Patient's full name
IPD No	Auto-assigned IPD admission number
Payor	Self, insurance company, or corporate account
Mobile	Patient's registered mobile number
Consultants	Assigned treating doctors
Date of Admission	When the encounter was created
Date of Discharge	When the encounter ended (empty for in-progress patients)
Bed	Currently allotted bed, if assigned
Invoice	Total invoiced amount during the stay
Collection	Total amount collected so far
Balance	Outstanding amount (Invoice minus Collection)
Estimated Discharge Date	Color-coded: green (3+ days away), blue (1–3 days), orange (< 1 day), red (overdue)

Clicking a patient's MRN in the console opens the Patient Dashboard, which is the hub for all per-patient IPD actions.

Next Steps After Admission

The admission form only creates the encounter. These are separate actions from the Patient Dashboard:

Step	Where
Bed Allotment	Patient Details → Allot Bed. See Bed Management.
Initial Assessment	Documents & Encounters → Initial Assessment. Clinical notes, vitals, and examination findings.
Billing	Quick Actions → Billing. See Bill Transaction.

The patient's encounter also appears in Search Edit Encounter (/admin/patient/encounter/search/{patientId}) where it can be viewed and edited.

FAQ

Q: Can I change the bed after admission? A: Yes. Use the bed transfer feature. See IPD Bed Transfer.

Q: How is the IPD number generated? A: Each organization has an auto-incrementing IPD counter. The number is unique per organization and assigned sequentially at admission.

Q: What is an MLC admission? A: Medico-Legal Case — flagged for cases requiring police or legal documentation (accidents, assaults, etc.). Set MLC to TRUE on the admission form.

Q: Can I admit a patient who already has an open encounter? A: Yes. Check the "Close existing encounters and proceed" checkbox. The open encounter will be marked as finished before the new admission is created.

Q: Why is the "New IPD Visit" button not showing? A: IPD admission is not available on Lab or Clinic plans. If your plan includes IPD, verify your role has patient management permissions.

Q: Can I backdate an admission? A: Yes. Change the Date Of Admission field to the desired date and time before submitting.