Help Center Membership Management: Patients and memberships Duplicate patient records (merge)
Duplicate patient records (merge)
Where: Members → Find duplicates. Or from a patient's Possible duplicate box → Compare & merge. Who: people with Merge duplicate patient records (owner and admin by default). Without it you see: "Merging patient records needs the "Merge duplicate patient records" permission."
What it is for: sometimes the same person is in the portal twice, for example, once typed in by hand and once from the EMR. Merging puts everything on one record.
The page title is Duplicate patient records, with a ← Members button to go back.
The list of possible duplicates
The intro says: "Records that look like the same person but are filed as different patients, found by the rules ticked below. A patient who holds two memberships is one patient and is not listed. Pick the pair, choose which record to keep and which details win, and merge, everything on the other record (orders, notes, follow-ups, alerts, faxes, shipments) moves to the kept one and the other is archived as "merged". Two [EMR] records under different [EMR] patient ids should also be merged in [EMR]."
The rules (tick boxes)
| Tick box | Finds records that share… |
|---|---|
| Same e-mail | the same e-mail address (capital letters do not matter). |
| Same date of birth | the same date of birth. (This can list people who are not related, check names!) |
| Same first + last name | the same first and last name. Capital letters, spaces, punctuation and Jr / Sr / II / III / IV / V are ignored. |
All three start ticked. At least one must stay ticked, you cannot untick the last one. The list updates as soon as you change a tick. Refresh looks again. Next to it: N groups.
- While looking: Looking…
- If nothing is found: No duplicates found by those rules.
- Archived records and records already merged are not listed.
- If the same people match on several rules, they are listed once, under the strongest rule (e-mail first, then date of birth, then name).
- Each person is listed once per group, even if they have several memberships.
The table
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Matched on | A badge: same e-mail (green), same date of birth (green) or same name. Under it a hint: a hidden e-mail like **j\\\*@example.com, born 1985 · last name Smith**, or the name. |
| Records | One line per person: name (click to open the patient), type · status · added manually (or the EMR name) · since [start date], and what the record has: e-mail · phone · DOB (or no contact details), · N notes, · order open. |
| (button) | Compare & merge for a pair. For a group of 3 or more: two drop-downs to pick the two records, then Compare (greyed out if you pick the same record twice). |
The compare screen
Loading both records… shows first. Then two columns:
- Keep: [name]: the record that stays.
- Merge away: [name]: the record that is folded in and archived.
Each name opens that patient in a new tab. Under each name:
- type · status · added manually (or [EMR] id 1a2b3c4d…) · since [date] (· archived if it is).
- N orders · N notes · N follow-ups · N faxes · N other memberships
- Next reorder [date] · order [status]
⇄ Swap (between the columns) switches which record you keep (hover: "Keep the other record instead"). Your field choices are reset when you swap.
Warnings
A list may appear under the columns:
- "These two rows are already the same patient (two memberships). Merging will fold one membership into the other."
- "Both records come from the EMR under different patient ids. Merge them in the EMR as well, until then the archived record keeps syncing in place (it stays archived here)."
- "The record to merge away is the EMR-synced one. Consider keeping that one instead so the EMR link survives.": click ⇄ Swap.
- "Date of birth stays the EMR's on a synced record (it is the pharmacy match key); other fields taken from the merged record are locked against the sync."
- "Both records have an open reorder. The kept record's stays; the other is cancelled (its prescription, if any, goes with it)."
Choosing details, field by field
The line says: "For each detail, tick whose value the kept record ends up with. Blank on the kept side and filled on the other is taken automatically."
The table has Detail, Keep ([name]) and Merge away ([name]), with a round button for each side:
| Detail | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | |
| Phone | |
| Date of birth | If the kept record is synced, it says stays [EMR]'s and you cannot take the other one. |
| Sex | |
| Address | |
| Saved medication | When both have different medication, there is a third choice: keep both lists. Lines with the same drug and strength are not doubled. |
| Status override | A status override someone set on either record. |
- Every detail starts on Keep.
- If both sides are the same, the buttons are greyed out.
- If the "merge away" side is blank, you cannot pick it.
- If the kept side is blank and the other side is filled, the filled value is taken by itself. (For medication: if the kept record has none, the other record's medication is taken.)
- On a synced kept record, any field you take from the other record is locked against the EMR sync (like a staff edit). If you take the other name, the EMR's name is remembered so you can go back with Use [EMR]'s value.
Merge
Click Merge [merge-away name] into [kept name] (or Cancel to go back). A box asks: "Merge X into Y? Everything on X's record moves across and that record is archived as merged. This can be undone by unarchiving, but the field choices are applied now."
When it is done, you go back to the list and a green-edged box says what moved, for example: "Merged Patty Example into Pat Example, moved 3 orders, 2 followups, 1 notes, 1 notifications." plus any warnings. ("notifications" means alerts; "siblings" means other memberships.)
What moves in a merge
From the "merge away" record to the kept record:
- Orders: every order, with a history line "Moved by merge from [name]".
- Follow-up calls logged.
- Notes.
- Open alerts.
- Faxes linked to the patient.
- Shipments and tracking-review rows.
- Other hand-entered memberships of the merged patient join the kept patient.
- Detail changes (name, phone, e-mail, date of birth, sex, address) are also copied to the kept patient's other memberships.
Open reorders:
- If both records have an open reorder that is not yet placed, the kept one stays. The other one is cancelled (reason: "Merged into [name], the kept record's open reorder stands"), with its prepared prescription.
- If only the merged record has a current order, it moves to the kept record.
The merged record is archived, marked Merged (it points to the kept record), and its open-order details are cleared. Any "possible duplicate" flags pointing at it are cleared.
The merge is written to the audit log, with the choices you made and what moved.
Undo
There is no one-click undo.
- Open the merged record (from the Members page with Show archived) and click Unarchive. It comes back into the lists.
- The orders, notes, follow-ups, alerts, faxes and shipments stay on the kept record. They do not move back.
- The field choices you made on the kept record stay. Change them back by hand if needed.
- The Merged. box stays on the unarchived record, and that record stays out of the duplicate finder. This is so it is not offered for merging again.
Messages you might see
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| That record was already merged | The "merge away" record was merged before. |
| The record to keep was itself merged into another one | Pick the record it was merged into instead. |
| Pick two different records | You chose the same record twice. |
| Patient not found | One record no longer exists. Refresh. |
Questions people ask
Q: The same patient shows twice on the Members page. Is that a duplicate?
A: Maybe not. If the patient has two memberships, they show on two rows but are one patient, the duplicate finder does not list them. A duplicate is two separate patient records for one person.
Q: Which record should I keep?
A: Usually the one from the EMR (synced), so the EMR link survives. The page warns you if you are about to merge away the synced one; click ⇄ Swap.
Q: Will I lose any orders or notes?
A: No. Orders, notes, follow-ups, alerts, faxes and shipments all move to the kept record. Only a second open, unplaced reorder is cancelled (the kept record's open reorder stays).
Q: Why can't I pick the other record's date of birth?
A: The kept record is synced. Its date of birth always stays the EMR's, because the pharmacy uses it to match the patient.
Q: The date-of-birth rule lists people who are clearly different.
A: That rule only looks at the birth date. Untick Same date of birth, or just don't merge those.
Q: Both records are from the EMR. Do I need to do anything else?
A: Yes. Merge them in your EMR too. Until you do, the archived record keeps getting updates from the EMR, but it stays archived in the portal.
Q: I merged the wrong patients. How do I undo it?
A: Open the merged record (Members → Show archived) and click Unarchive. The history that moved stays on the kept record, and the detail choices stay applied, so fix those by hand.
Q: I don't see "Find duplicates" or "Compare & merge".
A: You need Merge duplicate patient records (owner and admin by default).
Q: What is "Not a duplicate" on the patient page?
A: It clears the Possible duplicate flag when the two records are really different people.