IPD — inpatients, beds & discharge

The IPD module (on the Growth and Enterprise plans) manages admitted patients from admission to discharge, with a running bill that grows as care is delivered. Clinical → IPD shows the Admitted board and recent discharges.

The IPD admissions board in ZenhCare
The IPD board — admitted patients, their beds, and the running bill.

Set up wards and beds first

You can only admit into a bed, and beds live inside wards. Create them under Clinical Settings → Wards & Beds before your first admission — see Clinical setup.

Admitting a patient

Admit Patient opens the admission form:

  1. Patient — search, scan, or create.
  2. Care model — Fixed doctor (one attending doctor: pick a department, then the doctor) or Duty roster (the ward's on-duty doctor covers; an attending doctor is optional).
  3. Billing — Standard (per-day bed charges) or Short stay (a flat day-care package fee instead of bed-days).
  4. Ward → Bed — the bed list shows only unoccupied beds in the chosen ward.
  5. Condition and an admission reason (required).
  6. Admit. The patient appears on the Admitted board and their bed is occupied.

The running bill

While admitted, charges accumulate on the admission's running bill: bed-day charges (or the flat short-stay fee), a ward service charge where configured, plus anything added during the stay — lab orders, pharmacy, procedures — which bill straight onto the same admission. Open an admission to see length of stay, the itemised bill, the bed and attending doctor, and any deposits paid against it.

Bed management

Beds carry a daily rate and a type (General, Semi-Private, Private, ICU). The app tracks each as Available, Occupied, or Under maintenance, so the admission picker only offers free beds. Transfers move a patient between beds while keeping the bill intact.

Discharge

From an admission's detail page, Discharge finalises the stay, closes the running bill into a final invoice, and frees the bed.

Discharge is a doctor's action

By design, only a doctor can discharge an inpatient — administrators are deliberately excluded from this step. If you need to discharge and can't, it's because your role isn't a doctor.

Related