Merging Patients

Using Merge Duplicate Patients, providers and staff members with the Merge Patients security setting enabled can merge one patient record into another. During the merge process, you select one record to become the Primary record and merge one or more other records into it. The merged record is deactivated and the information is added to the Primary record.

The patient ID, nickname, address, phone numbers, communication preference, employee ID and employee status from the merged record are saved in the Primary record's Notes, for your reference. The address is also added to the Primary record's Additional Addresses.

You can also select to replace some demographics information in the Primary record when merging. See below.

If you have Eyefinity EHR integrated, you can merge patient exam data in Eyefinity EHR when you merge patient records in Eyefinity Practice Management. The unneeded patient chart is archived and no longer appears in your Eyefinity EHR system.

We strongly recommend you review the affected patient charts in Eyefinity EHR before performing the merge in Eyefinity Practice Management. You will need to manually move any visit notes or attachments from the duplicate chart into the chart you are going to keep. Once you have done that, you can return to Eyefinity Practice Management and perform the merge. For more information on merging patient records in Eyefinity EHR, refer to your Eyefinity EHR documentation.

The following information is merged:

Location

Information Merged (added to the Primary record)

Demographics

Preferred Name

Communication Preferences

Responsible Party

Provider Employee Id

Home Office

Birth Sex

SS#

Occupation

Employment

Status

Employee Status

Marital Status

Activities

 

The following information replaces the information in the Primary patient record if selected in step 6, below:

Name

Address

Date Of Birth

Primary Phone Number

Secondary Phone Number

Email

 

Appointments

Appointment Status

Service Type

Insurance

Carriers

Relationships

Eligibility and Authorization

Rx

Eyeglass

Contact Lenses

Material Orders
(invoiced only)

Exams

Eyeglass

Contact Lenses

Frame and other Items

Correspondence

Notes

Documents

Only providers and staff members with the Merge Patients security permission selected in Administration can merge patient records. For information on setting security permissions, see Setting Up Provider Security Settings and Setting Up Staff Security Settings

To merge patients:

  1. Click Patients, and select Merge Patients.
  2. Enter the patient’s Last Name, First Name, and/or Date of Birth.
  3. Click Search.
  4. In the list, click the patient records you want to merge.

    Details for the selected patient records appear below the list. To remove a record from the list, click Remove.

    You may need to repeat the search if both patient records are not listed.
  5. Locate the patient record you want to keep in the system and click Select as Primary.

    The record you are keeping is highlighted in green.

  6. For the record you are not keeping, select the check boxes for the information you want to replace in the primary record.
  7. Click Merge.

    A message appears, asking you to confirm the merge.

  8. Click Yes.

    The patient information is merged into the Primary record and the non-primary record is deactivated in the system.