How to record growth and vaccination visits in a paediatric clinic
By the Curogrid team · · 4 minute read
Record a child's weight and height at every visit, measured the same way each time, and record each vaccine on the day it is given with its name, batch and date. Keep both in the child's one file. Then any visit, for any reason, can answer the two questions a parent asks most: is the child growing, and what is due next.
This guide covers the record and the running of the clinic. It does not reproduce a vaccination schedule or say what a normal measurement is. Use the schedule and the growth charts you practise by.
What to record at a growth check
Record the same few things at every visit, including visits for a fever or a cough. A growth record is only useful as a series, and a series has gaps if measuring is kept for “growth visits” alone.
- The date of the visit.
- Weight, on the same scale each time, with the same amount of clothing.
- Height or length, measured the same way each time.
- Any other measurement your practice takes for the child's age.
- Who measured, when more than one person does it.
Measure before the child reaches the doctor
Make measuring a job for the sister or the compounder, done while the family waits. The doctor then opens the file with today's figures already beside the earlier ones, and the whole consultation goes to the child.
- Give the token at the desk.
- Call the child to the scale in token order, ahead of their turn with the doctor.
- Enter the weight and height in the child's file straight away. Do not write them on a slip to be copied later.
- Send the family back to the waiting area until their token is called.
What to record at a vaccination visit
Record enough that another doctor, years later, can tell exactly what was given. The parent's card can be lost, so the clinic's record has to stand on its own.
| What to record | Why it is needed |
|---|---|
| Vaccine and brand | Different products exist for the same disease. |
| Batch number | So a child can be traced if a batch is ever recalled. |
| Expiry date of the vial | Shows the vaccine was in date when it was given. |
| Date given | So the doctor can set the next date from it. |
| Who gave it | So a question can be answered later. |
| Next visit, as the doctor set it | So the desk can book it before the family leaves. |
Write the same entry on the parent's card at the same time, so the two records never differ.
Bill the visit and the vaccine separately
Charge the visit as a service and the vaccine as an item from stock, on the same bill. The visit charge is your fee and stays the same. The vaccine has a purchase cost, a batch and an expiry, and its count must fall by one each time one is given. If the two are billed as a single line, the count on the shelf never matches the record.
Keep vaccine stock by batch and expiry
Enter each delivery of vaccine with its batch and expiry, and use the earliest expiry first. Look at what is about to expire at the start of each month, while there is still time to use it or return it. Store every vaccine as its manufacturer directs. Storage is outside the scope of this guide.
Book the next visit before the family leaves
Book the next vaccination or growth visit at the desk, on the day, from the date the doctor has set. Send a reminder before it. A family that leaves with only a date written on the card depends on someone at home reading the card in time.
Keep well children apart from sick ones where you can
If your space or your timings allow, give vaccination and growth visits their own hour or their own corner of the waiting room. A well baby who has come for a vaccine then does not sit beside children who have come with a fever. Where that is not possible, mark the baby's token so the doctor can see it and call the family in sooner.
How Curogrid does it
In Curogrid, weight and height are saved at each visit, and the sister can enter them before the doctor starts. A child's file opens on a Growth card that draws weight over the last five visits as a small chart, with the latest height beside it. Vaccination and Growth check are one-tap procedures on the visit. The visit is billed as “Immunisation, visit charge”, a starter service at ₹200, and the vaccine is kept as stock with its batch and expiry and added to the same bill. A token can be marked “Baby under 2”. Reminders for booked visits go out by WhatsApp and email.
Curogrid does not plot percentile growth charts, and the visit screen has no separate field for head circumference. It does not hold a vaccination schedule or work out which vaccine is due: the doctor sets the next date and the desk books it. Curogrid costs ₹399 a month on Plus or ₹999 on Pro, for the whole clinic, with a 5-day free trial of Pro.