OPD Register Format for Indian Clinics

The columns, and where they come from

Most chambers already keep a register book on the reception table: one line per patient, in the order they come in. The format below follows the outdoor patient register in the Gujarat rules (Annexure-10, Part D), which is the only state format with set columns that we found, and adds three optional columns that many OPDs find useful. Outside Gujarat, treat it as a sensible layout, not a prescribed one.

#	Column	What to write	From
1	Serial No.	A running number for the day, starting at 1.	Gujarat Part D, column 1
2	Date and time	Part D puts the date at the top of each page. A time column helps when you see the same patient twice in a day.	Part D header; time is our addition
3	Name of the patient and address	Full name and a usable address: village or locality, and town.	Part D, column 2
4	Mobile / contact no.	"If available", in the words of the format.	Part D, column 3
5	Age	In years; months for infants.	Part D, column 4
6	Gender	As the patient tells you.	Part D, column 5
7	Provisional diagnosis	The working diagnosis you wrote on the prescription.	Part D, column 6
8	New / Follow-up	N or F. Optional.	Our addition
9	Fee / receipt no.	Amount and receipt number, or "free". Optional.	Our addition
10	Procedure / Panchakarma	Only if your clinic does procedures, dressings or Panchakarma sessions. Optional.	Our addition

The top of each page carries the clinic's details, as Part D has them: system of medicine (Allopathy, Ayurveda, Homoeopathy and so on), whether it is a clinic or a consulting room, the clinical establishment registration number, the name of the doctor, and the date.

Setting it up in Excel or Google Sheets

1. Download the CSV header above and open it in Excel or Google Sheets. It has the column names and nothing else. Name and address, and date and time, are separate columns so you can sort and filter them. Delete the last column if you do not do procedures.
2. Freeze the top row so the headings stay visible as the day fills up.
3. Format the mobile column as text, so a number that starts with 0 or +91 is not changed.
4. Add a drop-down for New / Follow-up with Data validation, so the column stays clean enough to count at month end.
5. Use one sheet per month, and do not merge cells. A plain grid is easy to sort, filter and print.
6. Keep a copy away from the clinic computer, on a pen drive or a cloud folder only the doctor can open. A register on one laptop is one theft away from gone.

The register has names, phone numbers and diagnoses in it, so treat the file the way you treat your case papers. Our DPDP Act guide for clinics covers what the data law asks of a clinic.

Printing a paper register

Print the blank sheet in A4 landscape. Each page has 18 lines. Write the date and page number at the top of every page, and bind a month's pages together, or paste them into a long book. If the receptionist fills columns 1 to 6 when the token is given, the doctor only has to add the diagnosis after the consultation, which takes a few seconds at the end of each patient.

Write the diagnosis the way it appears on the prescription. If the slip says a symptom because the diagnosis is not yet clear, the register can say the same. Avoid shorthand that only you can read, since the register is meant to be read by someone else, such as an inspecting officer or the doctor who covers your leave.

What the rules say, as we read them

This is our reading of the documents linked under Sources, not legal advice. Check the current text with your state's registering authority.

• Clinical Establishments Act standard for a clinic or polyclinic (CEA/Clinic-009), clause 10.1.1: "Every patient visiting the clinic shall be registered." Clause 9.2 asks for copies of records to be kept for at least 3 or 5 years, or as another Act in force says. These standards are for states that follow the Central Act.
• Gujarat, rule 15(3) of the Clinical Establishments Rules as amended in 2024: the OPD record is kept electronically for at least two years. Annexure-10 Part D gives the outdoor patient register format used on this page. Its note says the record can be kept "in physical or in electronic format". The two lines read differently, so ask your District Registering Authority which one they go by. Our Gujarat registration guide has the rest of the duties.
• West Bengal, rule 47(3) of the 2017 rules: a licensed single-doctor chamber maintains an OPD register, alongside records under the medical council rules and medicolegal records. The rule does not give columns or a period. See our West Bengal chamber licence guide.
• NMC, Code of Medical Ethics Regulations 2002, clause 1.3.1 sets 3 years for the records of indoor patients. It does not set a period for an OPD register. Our paper vs digital records guide goes through retention in more detail.

Other states have their own Acts and rules. Do not carry one state's format or period over to another.

If you use clinic software

Most clinic software already holds what goes in these columns, spread across the patient record and the visit. In Medabha, the clinic owner can download patients, visits and prescriptions as CSV files from Download your records on the Account info page in Settings. Medabha does not print an OPD register in this format today, and the patient file it exports has no address column, so a clinic that needs the Part D layout would still keep the address in the register. See clinic management software for what the OPD side of Medabha does.

Sources

• Clinical Establishment Act Standard for Clinic / Polyclinic with Dispensary, CEA/Clinic-009 (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), clauses 9.2 and 10.1.1.
• Gujarat Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2024, Gujarat Government Gazette of 13 March 2024, rule 15(3) and Annexure-10 Part D.
• West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Rules, 2017, rule 47 (Indian Kanoon copy).
• Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, clause 1.3.1.