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If Care360 Labs & Meds, ePrescribing, or EHR detects multiple patient records that share similar demographic information (but contain one or more fields that differ), it considers those patients potential duplicates, because it cannot determine whether or not they are actually the same patient. When this condition exists, you can resolve those duplicate patients by reviewing the patient records and doing one of the following:
• Merge patients. If two or more patient records have inadvertently been created for the same patient, you can combine (or “merge”) those records into a single patient record. When you merge patient records, all patient data is combined into a single record, or patient summary, for the Primary patient. If the patients you select to merge have encounter notes which include history items or OB data, the following occurs:
• Any history data available in the patients encounter notes remains in the encounter notes when the records are merged, and the past medical, surgical, family, or social history items included in the encounter notes also appear in the history sections of the Primary patient’s summary.
• Any OB header and flowsheet data in the patients encounter notes remains in the encounter notes when the records are merged. In addition, encounter notes that are new to the Primary patient will display in the Primary patient’s flowsheets for finalized and in progress notes which have the same, or more recent, date of service than the merged encounter notes.
• The patient’s pregnancy status will match the status of the Primary patient when the records are merged.
• Add a patient as new. If a patient identified as a potential duplicate does not match another patient in Care360 Labs & Meds, ePrescribing, or EHR, you can add that patient as a new patient of your organization.