OPD card meaning: the patient's registration slip What the Health Ministry's standards say it carries, how Delhi government hospitals issue it, and what a clinic keeps besides.

An OPD card, also called an OPD slip or parchi, is the paper a hospital or clinic gives a patient at OPD registration, carrying the date, the patient's particulars and the OPD or doctor details, which the patient takes to the consultation. Parchi is simply Hindi for a slip of paper. Whatever is written on it, the card goes home with the patient, and the clinic needs its own record of the visit.

What is an OPD card?

Proof of registration for the day's OPD. The Health Ministry's Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) 2022, Volume I, for sub-district and district hospitals, says: "Patients should be given an OPD registration slip mentioning the date, the patient's particulars, the OPD details and a token number or use an electronically supported queue system." Volume III, for primary health centres, says: "Patients should be given a computer generated OPD registration slip mentioning the date, patient's particulars and OPD details." The token number side of this is covered in our OPD token system entry.

Where does the format come from?

There is no single national OPD card format in the documents we read; IPHS sets the minimum contents for public facilities, and each hospital prints its own. Two Delhi government hospital pages show how it works in practice. Lok Nayak Hospital's registration page says the data entry operator records the patient's details in the hospital information system, then "Registration card is printed and handed over to patient. The card has patient details and Department details, such as Unit head's name and room number." It also says ID proof is requested but "it is not mandatory". Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital says a patient "may generate OPD card directly through Department website" up to 8 am for the same day, and bring the printed slip to the hospital.

Is an OPD card enough as a clinic's record?

No, because the patient takes it away. For establishments registered under the Clinical Establishments Act, rule 9(iv) of the Central Government Rules, 2012 says "the clinical establishments shall maintain and provide Electronic Medical Records or Electronic Health Records of every patient as may be determined and issued by the Central Government or the State Government". Clause 1.3.2 of the 2002 conduct regulations expects records to be issued within 72 hours of a request, which a clinic cannot do from a card in the patient's pocket. Our case sheet and medical record entries cover what the clinic should keep.

What it means for a small clinic

Keep the card and the record separate. At Sunrise Clinic, a sample single-doctor clinic, the desk registers the patient, prints a slip with the clinic name, date, patient name, doctor and token, and hands it over. The doctor's notes and prescription are saved against the patient at the clinic, and a printed copy goes home. If the patient loses the slip, nothing is lost from the clinic's side.

In Vitels the desk registers the patient once, and an 80 mm token slip with the token, the doctor and the patients ahead can be printed. The prescription prints on the clinic's own letterhead, A4 or A5. See patient queue management.