A queue per department
Its own prefix, numbering, hours, sessions and daily limit.
Hospital token system
A token system for hospitals with many departments and counters
A token system in a hospital is not one queue. It is a queue at registration, one per OPD department, and more at the lab, the pharmacy and the billing counter, each with its own waiting area and screen. MedBrains runs them all on one token system, and the patient keeps the same number from the first counter to the last.
Book a demoWhy hospitals outgrow a single token machine
A stand-alone token dispenser knows nothing about the patient. The registration desk issues one number, the doctor's assistant calls names, the lab hands out paper slips and the pharmacy has its own counter display. The patient carries four numbers, nobody can say how long anyone waited, and a patient who is in the wrong department simply waits in the wrong queue.
When tokens come from the hospital's own registration and orders, the queue knows which department a visit is for, what the doctor ordered and when the bill was raised, so the next token is issued at the moment it is needed.
How tokens flow across departments
Registration
A registration counter can run its own token queue, and a patient who shares their ABHA profile by scanning the counter's QR gets a registration token straight away. ABHA Scan & Share is built for ABDM; MedBrains is not yet certified by the National Health Authority.
OPD, one queue per department
Opening the OPD visit issues a token in that department's queue. Each department configures its own prefix, numbering, hours, sessions and daily limit. Booked patients get their token when they check in at the desk or the self check-in kiosk.
Lab sample collection
When a lab test is ordered, the patient gets a lab collection token, once per day, carrying the number they already hold for the visit. A STAT order lifts a patient already waiting for a routine collection.
Pharmacy
A pharmacy order issues a pharmacy token, per store counter when the store is known, again on the visit's number.
Billing
Raising the bill issues a billing-counter token, once per patient per day.
Wrong department
A patient sent to the wrong department is moved, and the visit, the doctor's queue and the token move together. They keep their place by arrival time instead of starting again at the back.
A board for every waiting area
Each waiting area gets its own TV board. Any TV with a browser will do: the screen shows a pairing code, an administrator approves it, and it is bound to that board. A paired screen signs in as a display that can read its board and nothing else, so a TV in a corridor never holds a staff session. Boards update live when a token is called.
Boards show the token number only by default, or initials if a queue chooses. Names never reach a public screen. Calls are spoken in the queue's languages (English, Hindi and Tamil today), digit by digit, and repeated as the queue is set. Where several rooms or counters serve one queue, the board tells the patient which one to go to.
Counters, staff and fairness
Every queue can be served by several counters or rooms. Each call names its counter, and a counter can be limited to named staff, so calls come from the right desk. Doctors in the staff app on iOS and Android see their own patients first, then the department's unassigned patients. The token console gives desk staff call next, recall, hold, move and no-show.
Order is decided by rule, the same in every department. Stat, urgent and emergency referral are always first and cannot be configured away. Protected lanes for senior citizens, people with disabilities and pregnant women are never called after an ordinary patient. Courtesy lanes such as VIP come after them, and a patient sent home unseen yesterday returns ahead of VIP. Priority can be raised by staff who see a patient worsen, never lowered.
Measured waits for management
At the end of the day, every open token is closed: those still waiting are marked expired, separately from no-shows, so the hospital's own backlog does not inflate the no-show rate. Service times are reported as the median and 90th percentile, per room, department, counter and doctor, from real visits. Wait times appear on the management dashboard against the usual day.
What is not built: WhatsApp token updates, SMS alerts you can rely on (the OPD call SMS is off by default and not yet on DLT templates), tokens in the patient app and a native Android TV app. The rest of the hospital is on the hospital management software page, the full token flow on the OPD queue management hub, and the setup for a small practice in the clinic token system guide. Camps run on the same tokens, station by station, as described in health camp software.
What a hospital gets
Counter tokens on the visit's number
Lab, pharmacy and billing tokens issued from the order or bill, carrying the patient's number.
A board per waiting area
Paired TVs that can read only their own board, number-only, with voice.
Rooms and staff per counter
Every call names its counter; counters can be limited to named staff.
Transfers that keep the place
Visit, doctor's queue and token move together to the right department.
Service times per room and doctor
Median and 90th percentile from real visits; expired kept apart from no-shows.
Questions
What is a token system in hospitals?
It is how a hospital gives each patient a number for each queue they join, registration, the OPD department, the lab, the pharmacy and billing, and calls those numbers on screens in each waiting area. It keeps names off public screens and the order fair.
Can each department have its own queue and screen?
Yes. Each department, counter or store has its own queue settings, and each waiting area's TV is paired to its own board.
Does the patient get a new number at the lab and pharmacy?
Lab, pharmacy and billing tokens carry the number the patient already holds for the visit, so they listen for one number all day.
What if a patient is in the wrong department?
They are moved to the right one, and the visit, the doctor's queue and the token move together. They keep their place by arrival time.
Does it work on any TV?
Any TV with a browser, or a TV stick, can show a board. There is no separate Android TV app.
Can patients get SMS or WhatsApp alerts?
No WhatsApp alerts. An OPD call SMS exists but is off by default and not yet on DLT-registered templates. Patients who check in at the kiosk can follow their token on their phone through a QR.