# Hospitalization

Admit an in-patient in Veterian — creating boxes and their pricing, admitting a patient, what the running amount is based on, and emptying a box at discharge.

Hospitalization tracks the patients staying at the clinic. A stay covers the period a patient occupies a box, from admission until you empty it again.

You need to create boxes first, because without one there is nowhere to admit a patient. The empty screen says as much: *No rooms are available yet. Create a room to start hospitalization.*

## Where to Find This Section

**Hospitalization** in the left menu. The board shows **Empty Boxes** and **Full Boxes**, so you can see the clinic's capacity at a glance.

## Creating a Box

1. Click **New Box**.
2. Give it a **Box Number**, and set the pricing.

**Price Type** sets how the box is charged: **Hourly**, **Daily**, or **None** for a box you do not charge for.

> **Note**
> To make a box free, leave **Price** empty **and** set the pricing to **None**. Setting only one of the two is a common mistake, and the form points this out beside the fields.

## Admitting a Patient

Click **New Hospitalization** and fill in four fields:

| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| **Customer** | Required. Search for the client |
| **Pet** | The patient. Selecting the client first narrows the list |
| **Start Date** | When the stay begins |
| **Note** | Anything the team needs to know about this stay |

The box then shows as full, with the patient's name on the card.

## While the Patient Is In

The stay shows its **Start Date**, a running **Duration**, and **Current Amount**. The last of these is the amount accumulated so far, based on the box's price and price type.

A stay with no end date yet is **Active**

## Discharging

**Empty the Box** ends the stay and frees the box.

> **Caution**
> *Are you sure you want to empty this box? The hospitalization will be ended and saved to history. This action cannot be undone.*

Do the billing before you empty the box. The running amount sits on the stay, and once the stay moves into **Box History** you are looking at a closed record rather than an open one.

## Box History

**Box History** lists every stay that box has held. Finished hospitalizations are recorded here, and this is where you check what a patient was charged for a stay last month.

## Deleting a Box

Deleting is permanent: *Are you sure you want to delete this box? This action cannot be undone.* If you have stopped using a box but may still need its history, leave it in place rather than deleting it.