Sometimes you end up with duplicated patients in your database. Instead of deleting one of the patients, Cliniko allows you to merge the two records!
Merging the patients means that any important information in both records is kept, for example: appointments, treatment notes, and invoices.
If you do find yourself with duplicate patients, you can simply merge them, and all will be a-okay! 👌
Merge patients together
🚨 Merging patients is an irreversible process. Please be sure that you're merging the correct patients. If you incorrectly merge two patients, you will need to manually add the other patient again.
Find one of the patients you want to merge, and click the Merge button:
You will be presented with any possible duplicate patients. Be sure to verify that these are in fact duplicates, and not two different patients who just happen to have the same name! You can double-check the date of birth and mobile numbers to help.
Note that the patient profile you're on when you click Merge is what we call the target patient. This is the one that any selected profiles (duplicate patients) will be merged into. None of the target patient's information will be overwritten in the process.
Tick the box next to Merge on any of the patient profiles you'd like to merge into the target patient, and then, after confirming that you do indeed wish to merge these patients together, click the Merge patients button:
They will now be merged together, and that's all you need to do!
What happens in detail
Here's a more detailed overview of how Cliniko deals with data when duplicate patients are merged.
Transferred records
The following data is transferred from the duplicate patient (the one you selected in the list of possible duplicates) to the target patient (the profile you were on when you clicked Merge):
Appointments (individual and group)
Treatment notes
Medical alerts
Invoices
Payments
Communications
Letters
File attachments
Recalls
Wait list entries
Health fund claims
Cases
Forms
Signatures
Phone numbers
Related patients
In the case of records that are exact duplicates, for example wait list entries or phone numbers, only one will be kept.
Fields that only allow one entry
When it comes to patient fields (including custom fields) that can only have one entry, like preferred name or address, Cliniko will keep the target patient's info, and only update those fields if they're blank.
For example:
Duplicate patient preferred name | Target patient preferred name (before merge) | Target Patient preferred name (after merge) |
Jim | James | James |
Jim |
| Jim |
Merged records
Some data is added together during a patient merge, such as:
Opening balance: the opening balance from the duplicate patient is added to the target patient. For example, if the duplicate patient has an opening balance of $10 credit, and the target patient has an opening balance of $50 owing, the target patient's opening balance will be $40 owing after the merge.
Notes fields (e.g. appointment notes): content from the duplicate patient note is added to the target patient note. Line breaks are used to visually separate the information.
Consent fields
We err on the side of caution with consent fields. What this means is if all patients involved in a merge (target and duplicates) have consented to marketing messages, then the target patient will consent to marketing after the merge. If at least one patient does not consent to marketing, then the target patient will not consent to marketing after the merge. The privacy policy acceptance field works in a similar way.