If you discover you have duplicate patient records, you can use the Merge Patients function to remove the duplicates and re-link all existing exam forms to a single patient ID. You must be a Registry Administrator or Facility Administrator to perform this function.
The records you want to merge must have at least one of these fields in common:
- First name
- Middle name
- Last name
- Date of birth
If they don't, edit them before performing the merge, so that at least one field has the same value for all the records you want to merge.
Access the function by clicking the Resolve Duplicates button on the Manage Patients page:
For example, assume there is a single patient with three separate patient ID's in the NRDR patient dictionary:
Patient ID 11111, has 2 exams in LCSR
Patient ID 22222, has 3 exams
Patient ID 33333, has 1 exam
The Merge Patients function allows you to choose one patient record, for example, 11111, into which the other records will be consolidated. The merge function also propagates patient ID 11111 to the exam form records for patients 22222 and 33333, so that all exams have patient ID 11111.
To merge records, first search for the duplicate records using the filter and appropriate criteria, as needed.
Next, select each record to be merged by clicking the box in the first column and then click the Merge Patients button.
