Find or register a patient
Search before you create, register a new patient without a duplicate and keep contact details and email preferences right.
After this lesson you can find a patient, register a new one without creating a duplicate and set the contact details every message depends on. It takes about 15 minutes. You need the Create patients permission, which every default role has.
Why it matters
Every booking, form and email attaches to one patient record. Two records for one person split their history and send messages to the wrong place. The front desk is where most records begin, so the care you take here protects everyone downstream.
How it works
A caller says she is Lotte Bakker, born 3 May 1971, and wants an appointment. You do not know yet whether she is already a patient.
Search first
Open Patients and type in Search patients…. Check the name and the birth date before you open a row. A matching name alone is not enough. If the list looks empty, a filter or your access may be the reason.
Register a new patient
Choose New patient. Enter Given name, Family name and Birth date. The dialog also offers a gender field and an identifier field when the practice's country uses them. The identifier is optional. Without Edit all patients the dialog shows it read-only, and a colleague with that permission adds it later.
While you type, Salisan checks for a match. If it finds one, Possible match already in this practice appears with the reason, either "same identifier" or "same name and birth date". Choose Open record to look. A match can be a record you cannot open. When you are sure it is a different person, the button changes to Create anyway.
Choose Create patient. The record opens and Patient added. appears. Add address, insurance and contacts there afterwards. Full profile opens the whole registration form with the name and birth date you already typed, and you finish it with Add patient.
A patient under 18 needs a parent or guardian on file. When the birth date is under 18, the dialog adds a Parent or guardian section: enter their Full name and Relationship, and Phone if you have it. The patient is not created until both required fields are filled in. Further contacts can be added on the record afterwards.
Contact details and preferences
Open Patient actions → Edit. Values read as text. Click one to change it. It saves when you press Enter or click away. Address, insurance and contacts save one section at a time.
Keep the Email and Preferred language accurate. Once an address is on file, Do not email this patient appears. It stops request links, forms and appointment emails, and anything already queued. Turn it on or off only when the patient asks. Exclude from AI assistance and Exclude from analytics sit under More details.
A clinician who registers a patient is assigned to that patient automatically. You are not, and you still see every patient because the Secretary role can read all of them. Your view of the Record page leaves out the clinical sections.
Try it
Your email address stands in for the patient's, so no real person receives a message.
- Open Patients and search for "Testpatient". If Sam Testpatient exists from another course, open it. Otherwise choose New patient, enter Sam, Testpatient and a Birth date that makes Sam an adult, and choose Create patient.
- Choose New patient again and enter the same name and birth date. Read Possible match already in this practice and its reason. Choose Open record. Do not choose Create anyway.
- Open Patient actions → Edit. In the Email row, click Add email, enter your own email address and press Enter.
- Do not email this patient now appears. Turn it on and read what it says it does. Turn it off again.
- Choose More details and turn on Exclude from analytics.
- Go back to Patients and search for Sam again. Check the birth date in the row.
Salisan cannot delete or archive a patient. Keep "Testpatient" in the name so nobody mistakes Sam for a real person. Only an owner or admin can start a formal erasure.
Check yourself
- Possible match already in this practice appears while you register someone. What do you do?
Answer
Choose Open record and compare name, birth date and identifier. If it is the same person, use that record. Use Create anyway only for a different person.
- You can open a patient's Record page but you do not see the clinical sections. Why?
Answer
The Secretary role has no clinical-record permission. You see identity, care team, appointments and requests, and clinicians see the rest.
- What does Do not email this patient stop?
Answer
Request links, forms and appointment emails, and anything already queued. Turn it off only if the patient asks to receive email again.
Next
Continue with Book an appointment. For the full steps, see Patients.