In a multi-location practice, duplicate patients are usually created accidentally, as a single patient might visit different locations of the same practice. Using the Patient Merge feature, multi-location practices can identify duplicate patient profiles across locations and merge them into a single profile.
Let's get started!
Topics Covered
Set Permissions for Patient Merge
Only users with the appropriate permissions under their profile can perform a patient merge. To enable permissions,
- Navigate to the System Menu > select Practice Settings > Administration > Profiles.
- Click Manage Permissions for the intended profile.
- Select the Patient section from the left.
- Under General and Patient Information, select the Check for Duplicate Patients or Merge Patient/Mark as Duplicate permissions, as required.
- Click Save.
- On the Confirm Action modal that appears, click Yes to proceed.
- A toast notification appears on the top right stating, 'Profile updated successfully'.
Merge Two Patients
- Select the patient using the Global Search Bar.
- To check for duplicate patient profiles, click Check for Duplicate Patients.
- When the system has identified a duplicate profile with identical First Name, Last Name, and Date of Birth, it will be displayed under the Duplicate Patients section.
- You can directly merge the two patient profiles or mark it as a duplicate.
- If there are no duplicate patients, a green message will appear stating, 'No duplicate patients found'.
- To manually search for a duplicate patient profile, use the drop-down below.
- Select the intended patient profile.
If you prefer not to merge two patient profiles, you can mark the source profile as a duplicate instead. Marking a profile as duplicate will only mark it for identification without transferring any data. To do this:
- Click Mark Duplicate.
- To switch the source and destination profiles, click Swap in the Mark as Duplicate pop-up.
- After confirming the correct source and destination profiles, click Mark as Duplicate.
To merge two identical patient profiles:
- You may notice light yellow boxes highlighting the information that differs between the two patient profiles.
- The information in white is identical information.
- If you find that both patient profiles refer to the same individual, click Merge Patient to combine them.
Note: The patient that was used to check for duplicate profiles will be the Destination Patient. |
- You will find the Source Patient and Destination Patient listed on the Merge Patient modal.
- If you need to swap the source and destination patient, click Swap.
- To continue, click Merge.
- On the Confirm Action modal, please review the data carefully before you click Confirm to proceed.
| Note: The merge process is permanent and irreversible. After completion, only the destination patient record will remain active. |
- You will see a toast notification on the destination patient's profile stating 'Patient Merge in Progress.'
- The merge process will take a few seconds to complete.
- Once the validation is done, the two patients will be merged.
- The destination patient will remain active and accessible, while the source patient will be archived and rendered inactive.
- The source patient's profile will display a Merged tag.
- Click the patient hyperlink to view the source or destination patient.
- To view the archived patients, click Archived Patient(s) on the destination patient's profile.
- You can view Merged and Duplicated patients on the Archived Patients pop-up.
Types of Data Transferred from Source to Destination Patient
- Allergies, Conditions, Medications, Patient Alerts, Memos, Documents
- Patient Flags: Custom flags from source to destination, if not already present.
- Completed Medical History Forms
- Membership Plans: 'Interested' status is transferred if the destination does not have an active, payment-due, or 'Interested' plan.
- Treatment Plans: Private/NHS Plans with all non-completed codes will be transferred in their entirety. For fully completed treatment plans, all codes move to ‘Base’.
- Private Plans: For Private plans containing both completed and non-completed codes, the non-completed codes will move to ‘Misc’ and completed codes move to ‘Base’.
- Clinical Charts (Odontogram): Proposed codes transferred; completed codes stay with the source.
- Care Notes: Care Notes not linked to any appointment or code are transferred.
- Treatment Conditions
- Periodontal Chart
- Implant Tracker Data
- Proposed Codes
- BPE
- Recalls: Recalls linked to completed codes will be marked as orphan recalls once merged.
- Prescriptions: E-Prescriptions will be copied as paper prescriptions.
- Future Appointments
- Lab Cases: Lab cases not linked to a past appointment.
- Task Manager
- Migrated Transactions
Types of Data Copied from Source to Destination Patient
- Demographics: Source demographic details added to destination without replacing existing data.
- Fee Schedule: Copied only if destination has no fee schedule assigned.
- NHS Exemptions: Copied only if missing; includes active and past.
- Ethnicity: Copied if not recorded on destination.
- General Practitioner (GP): Copied if not recorded on destination.
- Authorized Contacts: Copied only if linked to the destination patient’s account or family.
- Care Notes: Copied, but linked completed codes will be unlinked.
- Completed Codes: All copied to 'Base'
Types of Data Not Transferred
- Imaging Data
- Account Flags
- Payor: Retains the destination patient’s payor. Does not copy source payor to destination.
- Family Relationship
- Correspondence
- Past Appointments
- Clipboards
- Treatment Plans: Non-NHS treatment plans containing only completed codes will not be transferred, as they represent work that has already been completed. Similarly, treatment plans associated with NHS codes will not be transferred if all codes are completed and the claim is closed. Will remain under the source patient record and will not be duplicated in the destination patient.
- Patient Dentition
- Clinical Cases
- Ortho Cases
- Referral Data
- Accounting Transactions
- NHS Claims
- Past Payment Plans
- Patient Statements
- Transaction Charges
- Saved Cards
Check Why the Merge Validation Failed
Merge Eligibility Criteria
Patients will not be eligible for merging if they have any of the unresolved issues listed below; each scenario includes its required resolution.
- Unpaid Codes: Clearing dues allows conversion to duplicate or merged patient.
- Active Claims: Claims must be in Closed/Void Status.
- Active Ortho Plans: Terminating them allows conversion to duplicate or merged patient.
- Active General Payment Plans: All general payment plans should either be in Completed or Terminated status.
- Being a Responsible Party for Another Patient: Changing the responsible party of the other patient will allow conversion to a duplicate or merged patient.
- Membership Plan Subscriber: Terminating it will allow conversion to a duplicate or merged patient.
- Unapplied Credits: Transfer unapplied credits to the destination patient to mark the patient as merged or duplicated.
If any of the above non-eligibility criteria are met, the merge validation will fail.
- If a patient merge validation has failed, you will see a message highlighted in yellow stating, 'Patient Merge validation failed'.
- Click View Details to view the reason why the merge validation failed, and take the appropriate action based on the information provided.
Practices can use this simple guide to learn how to successfully merge duplicate patient profiles in CareStack.