How Andre Deals with Duplicate Patients in Eaglesoft.
Eaglesoft does warn users if you happen to try to save a “duplicate” patient, right? Kind of. You will be warned if the name is “identical”. Charles Smith and Charles A. Smith won’t get a warning.
Even if the Social Security number is the same, the users will not be warned. There is a report called Patients with Duplicate Social Security Numbers if you happen to want to look at duplicates there. You CAN "merge Accounts together" you cannot merge PEOPLE together.
So, you click List>Patients and there you see “Charles Smith” and “Charles A Smith” and realize that they are the same Patient. Now you want to merge the two together.
Well, there is no option to “merge” Patients. That option was removed with the Version 16 update.
My suggestion for a “best workaround” is to:
Determine which version of the Patient will be treated as the "Duplicate Patient” (DP) and which version of the Patient will be treated as the “Good Patient” (GP). Typically, the GP will be the Patient with the most Treatment history, and Images.
Make sure the names are EXACTLY the same. So NOT use symbols or alter a proper name at all. It should stay as an exact duplicate name, since they are duplicates. Do NOT add symbols or “Zs” to the name. Symbols and letters alphabetically changes the person’s name. Changing the name means there are not TWO William Smiths. It means there is a William Smith and a William SmithZZZ. You are welcome to ignore my advice. My feelings can NOT be hurt. It’s your database and using a duplicate Patient report won’t see them as duplicates.
Open the DP and uncheck "Responsible Party".
Select the GP as the Responsible Party for the DP. This will "move" all Account transactions of the DP into the GP's Account (in essence, merging the two accounts).
In the Patient Preferences of the DP, uncheck Active and uncheck Receives Recalls. This will inactivate the DP.
Remove any Phone Numbers and Emails Address from the DP. This way the DP cannot be "contacted".
Remove the Social Security Number and Birthday the DP.
In the Chart ID of the DP enter “DUPLICATE”.
In the Clinical Portion of Eaglesoft:
Open the Eaglesoft Advanced Imaging of the DP and on EACH Exam, right click and transfer them to the GP.
Progress Notes can NOT be Transferred so I suggest that you INDIVIDUALLY Copy/Paste each Date of Services Notes from the DP to the GP, starting each note with "COPIED FROM DUPLICATE PATIENT for DATE ________:". Do NOT attempt to delete or change anything in the DP’s Notes. Another option is to log out of ES and back in for the dates of the original notes and copy/paste each Note using the original date.
You will also need to duplicate all charting from the DP as Existing and Propose any services that might need to be Proposed in the GP chart. You can change the status of any Proposed Services in the DPs chart to Rejected (or possibly even Delete those services once copied).
OPTIONAL: Create a Patient Alert called “Duplicate Patient” and attach it to the DP. Not to the GP.
OPTIONAL: If there was an Account balance on DP, you could do a Credit Adjustment from the DP and then a Debit Adjustment to the GP making sure to use the appropriate aging category.
There is also a Patient Transfer with History Utility which I would suggest you contact the Patterson Technology Center (“Support”) to help with.
Best Practices is to ALWAYS search for Patients no matter if they say they have “never been” to the practice of not. Once a Person has ANY transactions, they can NOT be deleted from Eaglesoft.
DISCLAIMER:
This is a resource guide and all decisions on each dental office setup should remain the sole decision of the dentist/owner of the practice. Eaglesoft is a registered trademark of Patterson Dental Company. All other software or products mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Although Andre Shirdan was an employee of Patterson Dental, he is not associated with Eaglesoft or Patterson Dental Company or endorsed by Patterson or any other Company Mentioned in this blog.
