Two records for the same person
Why duplicates happen, how to merge them, and what survives the merge.
2 min read
Why they happen
Almost always one of three reasons:
The machine was offline. Reception registered the patient this morning; the machine in the other room had not synced and could not see them. Both registered. This is the honest cost of working while disconnected and it is handled, not prevented.
The name was spelt differently. Entered as it was heard.
They came without their card and nobody searched by phone number.
Searching by phone number before registering removes most of these. See Finding a patient.
Merging
Open one of the records and choose More → Merge. You choose which record survives — normally the one with more history — and which is merged into it.
You are shown both side by side before anything happens, because a merge of two people who are not the same person is a much bigger problem than two records for one person.
What happens
Everything from the merged record moves across: visits, notes, charges, payments, documents. Nothing is thrown away — the balance is still the sum of the same transactions, which are now all on one record.
The merged hospital number does not stop working. A patient holding the old card, or a slip quoting the old number, still reaches the right person: the number is kept as an alias pointing at the surviving record.
The merge itself is recorded, with who did it and when, and it stays visible on the record. A merge that turns out to have been wrong can therefore be seen and unpicked, which would be impossible if one record had simply been deleted.
Before you merge
Check they really are the same person. Two patients can share a surname, a date of birth and a town. Look for a second matching detail — the phone number, the next of kin, the address — before merging.
If you are not sure, leave them. Two records for one person is untidy. One record for two people is dangerous.