What to put in a physio intake form
A good intake form for a physiotherapy clinic usually covers:
- Contact details, date of birth, emergency contact.
- How they heard about you and who referred them.
- The main problem: where it hurts, since when, what makes it better or worse.
- Medical history: surgeries, conditions, medicines, allergies.
- Red flags you want to know about before the first session.
- Mediclaim or insurance details, if they will claim.
- Consent to assessment and treatment, and to how you keep their data.
Build your own forms
Clinidiary has a form builder made for clinics. You build a form one section at a time, in the order the patient will walk through it. Each question is a card showing exactly what the patient will see: short answers, choices, yes or no, dates, longer notes. Drag questions into order, and preview the whole form before you use it.
Make separate forms for separate needs: a new patient form, a sports injury form, a consent form for dry needling, a form for home-visit patients.
Sending a form
Send a form to a patient as a link, so they can fill it in on their phone at home, or print it for a patient who prefers paper. Each link opens only that one form for that one patient.
The best time to send it is straight after the booking. A patient who books through your online booking page can get the form the same evening.
Answers land on the file
When the patient submits the form, the answers are saved to their record. The physio reads the history before the session starts and spends the first visit on assessment, not paperwork. Read more about the patient record in physiotherapy EMR and treatment notes.
Questionnaire-type outcome measures, like an Oswestry or a NDI, can be sent the same way and are scored automatically.
Consent, done properly
Consent is not a formality. A signed, dated consent on the patient's file protects both the patient and your clinic. With digital forms, consent is collected every time, and you can find it in seconds when you need it. India's DPDP Act also expects you to tell patients how you use their data. Read patient data security and the DPDP Act.
The patient portal
Every patient can have a portal: a page where they sign in to see their upcoming appointments and their bills. It saves the front desk from questions like "what time is my next session?" and "can you send me last month's bill again?"
Frequently asked questions
Can patients fill in physiotherapy intake forms online?
Yes. Send a form link from Clinidiary. The patient fills it in on their phone, and the answers are saved to their file.
Can I make my own intake and consent forms?
Yes. The form builder lets you make any form your clinic needs, section by section, with a preview before you use it.
Does the patient need to download an app?
No. The form opens in the phone's browser from the link.
What can patients see in the patient portal?
Their upcoming appointments and their bills.