There are various reasons you may need to discharge a patient in Cliniko. A patient might complete their treatment, move to a new clinic, stop receiving care, or, in some unfortunate cases, pass away. While Cliniko doesn't have a specific "Discharged" flag, this guide will walk you through how to discharge patients while ensuring all records are appropriately maintained.

To denote that a patient has been discharged, one option is to adjust their name:

The updated name will appear across your account, including the patient list, any appointments this patient had, "official" documents (such as invoices and treatment notes), and anywhere that there might be communication with the patient—for example, letters or invoice emails that use the last name placeholder.

To modify the patient's name, select the patient you're looking for, and edit their details:

Within the Last name field add “[DISCHARGED]” or any label that would help you or your team identity the patient’s discharge status.

Once you Save, the name displayed on the patient's details page will immediately update.

When a patient passes away, it's important to update their records respectfully. While Cliniko doesn't have a specific "Deceased" flag, you can follow a similar approach to discharges.

To reflect that a patient has passed away, you can adjust their name by adding “[DECEASED]” to the Last name field:

Once the patient's name is updated and saved, it will immediately reflect on the patient’s details page and across all associated records.

While certain patient fields like the extra information field and medical alerts section on the patient's file can be used to store details of the discharged patient, you might also consider adding custom fields.

Use custom patient fields to track any additional details that would help with your records. For example, adding the reason why they were discharged, date of discharge, discharge details, etc.

If you want to create additional fields to add to the patient details page, have an Administrator or Power receptionist head to Settings, and then select Custom patient fields:

From here, if no custom patient fields have been added previously you'll want to click "create one":

Within each section, you can add as many custom fields as needed. Once you've added your fields, make sure to Save your changes.

The next time you edit your patient, you'll now see the custom fields appear:

If you set up custom patient fields, you can use them as placeholders to create a personalised discharge letter!

When creating your letter template just make sure to use the Patient placeholder dropdown:

At the very bottom of the list you'll see your custom fields that you can add into the content of your letters:

These placeholders will then automatically "pull" information into the actual discharge letter when you're writing it 🙌!

Example discharge letter:

To prevent the patient from appearing in active lists or sent further communications, you'll want to archive their record.

To archive a patient, select the patient you're looking for, and use the Archive button on their file:

You'll then see the date/time that the patient was archived, as well as the ability to make them active again:

To view archived records in the Patients list, tick "Show archived". An archived patent will show up as grey in the patient list:

You can also search the patient list by the label you've added for your patients:

If you need to review their details, just select their name—and if you need to unarchive them for any reason, select Make them active again:

You can also edit archived patients if you need to update or add additional details in the future.

For further assistance reach out to our support team for guidance.