Patient Registration by Mobile

Overview

Mobile is the most reliable identifier for a patient in NICE HMS. It is used to search for the patient, to deliver prescriptions over WhatsApp, and to verify the patient during ABDM/Aadhaar OTP flows.

"Register a patient with mobile" can mean two different things, and they are not the same workflow:

• Simple registration — you type the patient's details yourself, using mobile as the contact number. No ABHA involved.
• ABHA registration — the patient record is built automatically from their ABHA profile, and the mobile may be verified by OTP along the way.

This page covers the simple path, tells you which method to choose, and explains how mobile is handled in each.

Simple Registration (Without ABHA)

This is the standard registration for clinics that do not require ABDM compliance, and the fastest path when a patient already has a record with you or simply wants to be seen.

1. Log in to NICE HMS.
2. From the sidebar, click Patient.
3. In the patient panel, click New Patient.
4. Fill in the registration form and click Submit.

The system redirects to the Patient Management page with the new patient selected, ready for OPD registration.

For the full field list — what is required and what is optional — see Adding New Patients. Mobile appears on that form as a required field: you cannot submit without entering something in it.

Which Registration Method Should I Use?

The last four methods are all documented with step-by-step instructions in ABHA Patient Registration. If you are unsure whether the patient has an ABHA at all, ask them — that single question decides between the simple path and the ABHA paths.

Mobile Number Format

The rules differ depending on which path you are on.

Simple Registration

The Mobile field accepts any text. There is no length check, no digit check, and no country-code handling on this form — whatever you type is saved as-is.

In practice, always enter the bare 10-digit number, digits only, with no spaces, no +91, and no leading 0. This keeps the number consistent with the ABHA flows below and makes patient search work reliably.

ABHA Registration (OTP and Find ABHA by Mobile)

ABDM is strict here, and so is NICE HMS. The mobile number must be exactly 10 digits, starting with 6, 7, 8 or 9, with no country code and no separators.

• If you paste or type a number starting with 91 or +91, the system strips the leading 91 and keeps the last 10 digits.
• If what remains is not 10 valid digits, the system rejects it with "Enter 10 digits without country code" rather than guessing.

This restriction exists because ABDM itself rejects a leading +91 or 0. The number must match the one registered against the patient's ABHA, or the OTP will not be delivered.

WhatsApp Prescription Delivery

When you send a document over WhatsApp, NICE HMS prompts you for the WhatsApp number, pre-filled with the mobile number stored on the patient record. Whatever is in that prompt is sent to WhatsApp exactly as entered — no country code is added for you.

So if you are sending to an Indian patient, add the country code in the prompt yourself (for example, 919876543210). Adjust the prompted value rather than editing the patient record, since the stored number is deliberately kept as a bare 10-digit value.

Avoiding Duplicate Patients

NICE HMS does not detect duplicates by mobile number. Two patient records can share the same mobile number and even the same name, and nothing will stop you from creating the second one. Guarding against duplicates is therefore a mix of one automatic check and two habits.

The Automatic Check: "Possible Duplicate"

When you submit a new patient, NICE HMS compares the name (matching names that sound alike, not just exact spelling) and the gender against patients already registered in your organisation.

The form has a Possible Duplicate field, which defaults to No. Because it defaults to No, this check runs on every new patient you submit. If it finds a likely match, the save is blocked with a message naming the existing entries, for example:

These entries might be duplicates: Ramesh Kumar. To enable registration, mark 'Possible Duplicate' as true.

Set Possible Duplicate to Yes and submit again to register anyway. Do that only when you are certain the patient is genuinely a different person — for instance, a father and son with the same name.

Because the check works on name and gender only, a patient who shares a mobile number but has a different name will pass through silently. Two family members registered under one mobile number is common and perfectly valid, but it also means the mobile number alone cannot tell you whether you are about to create a duplicate.

Search Before You Register

Search existing patients before creating a new record. This is the surest way to avoid duplicates, and it takes a few seconds.

The patient search matches the mobile number from the start of the number. Entering 98765 returns every patient whose mobile begins with those digits; entering the last few digits returns nothing. For a full-number lookup, type the number from its first digit.

Merging Duplicates That Already Exist

If a duplicate has already been created, merge the two records rather than leaving both. The ABHA-linked record must be the one you keep. See Merging Duplicate Patients.

Editing a Patient's Mobile Number

You can edit a patient's mobile number from the patient edit page — but the field is locked once the patient has an ABHA linked, whether that is an ABHA address (such as ramesh.kumar@abdm) or an ABHA number.

This is deliberate. The demographics that came from the ABHA profile — name, gender, date of birth, mobile, state and district — are locked together so the local record cannot drift out of step with what ABDM holds for that patient.

If you genuinely need to correct the number on an ABHA-linked patient, use Disconnect ABHA on the edit page. That clears the ABHA address and ABHA number from the form and unlocks the demographics, so you can correct and re-save. Note that this removes the patient's ABHA link from the record — you will need to link their ABHA again afterwards if they still need ABDM features.

Two things that do not happen when you change a patient's mobile number:

• ABDM care contexts are not affected. Existing linked health records stay linked. Editing the mobile neither re-links nor unlinks anything with ABDM.
• WhatsApp delivery is not affected. The new number becomes the default in the send prompt, but nothing is sent or re-sent automatically.

FAQ

Q: The patient does not have a mobile number. What do I enter? A: Enter a family member's number if one is available. Mobile is important for future identification, WhatsApp delivery, and ABDM verification.

Q: Why can't I edit the mobile number? A: The patient has an ABHA linked, which locks the demographics. Use Disconnect ABHA to unlock them — see Editing a Patient's Mobile Number.

Q: Two of my patients share the same mobile number. Is that allowed? A: Yes. NICE HMS does not treat mobile as unique, and sharing a number across a family is normal. It does mean the mobile number alone will not identify a patient — search by name as well.

Q: I entered the mobile number and the OTP never arrived. A: Check the number is the 10-digit one registered against the patient's ABHA, with no country code. If the patient's ABHA is registered to a different mobile, use the ABHA address route (by ABHA) instead, or ask them for the number linked to their Aadhaar.

Q: Which method should I use for a patient who has an ABHA? A: If they know their ABHA address, use ABHA Patient (OTP). If they have an ABHA but do not know the address, use Find ABHA by Mobile. All methods are compared in ABHA Patient Registration.