Planning and setting up of a patient health record system for patients with non-communicable diseases in a primary healthcare setting

India has a high burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). For NCD surveillance, there are national and international targets. However, India lacks good quality data for NCD surveillance. Maintenance of the NCD record improves the quality of care and helps a treating physician in making a clinical decision. Most of the patients with NCDs seek care at the primary level and these facilities lack NCD record management. Through this paper, we share our experience of planning and setting up of a paper-based NCD health record system at a primary health care setting. We developed a system to generate and maintain patient health records which consisted of unique ID generation, index register, NCD record file and NCD passbook (Dhirghayu card) for each patient. We reorientated the process and devised a mechanism for record-keeping and data management. We faced several challenges during its implementation and overcame those with the mentioned solutions. Findings from this paper can be used to develop a similar system for patient health records at primary health care facilities, which can be used for NCD surveillance and patient monitoring purposes.