Picutres showing a woman, apparently suffering from mental ailments, being dragged away by a security guard at the district hospital at Khargone in Madhya Pradesh went viral on Saturday.
The incident had taken place on Thursday, hospital sources said.
The woman was asked to go away by hospital officials, and when she did not budge, a security guard dragged her off by her arm in full public view, they said.
The pictures of the incident circulated on social media, drawing angry reactions.
On Saturday, the hospital's civil surgeon Dr Deevyash Verma said that guards and even doctors have been warned that such an incident should not recur.
A doctor on duty had asked the guards to shift the woman, who was deranged, away from the hospital entrance as she could have been knocked down by ambulances, he said.
In future, the staff have been asked to seek police's help in such situations, Dr Verma said.
District collector Anugraha P on Saturday instructed the hospital officials and police to trace the woman and shift her to a hospital in Indore for treatment, an official release said.