Dealing with possible duplicate patient records

Override of the minimum mandatory fields setting

The EXACT software has a mechanism for defining the minimum mandatory patient fields that must be recorded for a patient record.

EXACT ignores this setting when creating a New patient from an online booking.

Existing Patients recording new information

What happens when existing patients enter information that contradicts records (such as a changed Email address)?

The new details don't automatically overwrite current details, but are stored in the "Notes about this appointment" area, accessible when you Edit the appointment.

Possible duplicate patient records

There is a possibility that the newly created record may belong to a patient that already has a record with the practice.

To avoid any duplications, the system checks for matches at the time the new record is created:

Matching First Name AND Last Name

and/or

Matching Date of birth

and/or

Matching Mobile number

and/or

Matching email address

If any of these conditions are met, the duplicate record warning displays in the Online Appointments Tab, and the matching records display in red text:

See further down this page for a list of details that are merged.

To locate and merge a possible duplicate record that has been indicated

1. Highlight / select the row in the Online Appointments Tab:

   

   You will see the Duplicates button become available:

   

2. Click the Duplicates button or click the Possible Duplicate Record icon to display the Duplicate Patients dialogue:

   

   The top portion of the screen displays the new patient details and the bottom portion of the screen displays the existing records that could possibly be the same patient.

   Specific fields in the existing record that match the new record display in red text.

3. Decide - is this a duplicate or a New patient?

   (Optionally click the View Patient button to view the patient file).

4. If this is not the same patient, click the Continue button to return to the Possible Duplicates window.
5. If this is the same patient, click the Merge button

   

   ... to display the Merge Patient Details:

   

   (To cancel the merge and return to the Possible Duplicate Patient screen, click the Cancel button).

6. To merge the existing patient and the new online bookings patient, click the OK button.

   You will see a request for confirmation, with a warning that the operation is irreversible:

   

   Selecting Yes causes the following system to do the following:

   1. Merge the two records.
   2. Associate the appointment to the existing patient record and retain it in the appointment tab.
   3. Erase the now redundant new record.
   4. Add a pop up NOTE to the destination Patient.
      
      This note includes any details which could not be successfully merge into the Patients file, so that the user can make an informed decision and enter these extra details if they are applicable.
      
      For example, here the Mobile phone number needs to be manually checked:
      

   
   

7. Use the pop up note guideline and check that the two records have merged successfully.

   NOTE ON MANUALLY MERGING TWO PATIENTS:
   When EXACT merges an online booking Patient with an existing Patient record, the new record is automatically deleted.
   However, if a practitioner manually merges two patients by means of the Merge button in the Patients File, the source patient file is NOT deleted, so in this case the practitioner needs to manually mark the source patient file as ‘Inactive’.

The following details are merged

Patient fields:

• First name
• Second name
• Last name
• Prefix (Holland only)
• Title
• Also known as (Holland only - creates it if it is not present)
• Initials
• Sex
• Date of birth
• Home address and post code
• Work address and post code
• Home, mobile, and work phone and work phone contact
• Alternative phone number and contact
• Fax number, pager number
• Email addresses
  

Patient records:

• Patient x-rays and video
• Contacts
• Patient notes and dated notes
• Charting
• Appointments
• Perio WHO and BPE (not sure if this includes new Holland perio)
• Transactions and associated invoice lines
• Waitlist entries
• Denplan OHS
• Pathology
• Medical History (just integrated medical history only?)
• Prescriptions
• Recalls
• Smile Surveys
• NHS Pilot Information
• Examine-Pro
• 3rd party link records (but not the actual third party data, which isn't held in our database)
• Custom tabs