Merge Patient Screen(State Users Only)

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Merge Patients Screen (State Users Only)

Purpose

Sometimes a single patient may have multiple records in the immunization system. When a case of duplicate records is found, a user will want to resolve them to a single record.

The Merge Patients screen allows the user to select information from two patient records and perform a merge that creates a single patient record to replace those two. It is also possible to mark two records as non-duplicates and work with multiple records at one time.

Workflows for the Merge Screen:
Information Provided
Functionality

Selecting Details to Merge

You need to choose which information to keep in the final record which is created to replace the records that are merged. Information which is a single value per patient record is indicated by circular radio buttons, in which case you must choose exactly one of the values. Information which is multi-valued per patient record is indicated by check boxes. The steps taken to select details to merge are as follows:

If you are working with more than two patient records on the Merge Patients Screen, select which patients you want to merge by checking the check boxes next to their patient ID's.
Go down the list of data associated to each patient. In each row, select the information you want to keep in the final merged patient. Some data, such as Date of Birth, have radio buttons because you can only keep one Date of Birth for the final patient. Other data, such as Responsible People, have check boxes because you can choose multiple Responsible People to keep for the final patient.
Alternatively, you may also use the All and None buttons to select the data for the final merged patient. The All button selects all the data for the patient. The None button unselects all the data for that patient.

Note: If you click All on one record and then click All on the second record, the system selects all checkboxes from both but only selects the radio buttons from the second record.

Merging Patients

The steps taken to merge patients are as follows:

If you are working with more than two patient records on the Merge Patients Screen, select which patients you want to merge by checking the check boxes next to their patient ID's.
Continue by selecting details to merge.
Click the Merge Selected button. The system creates one single new patient with the selected details to replace the previous patient records.
If you were working with three patient records and merged two of the three, the system will return you to the Merge Patients screen, and you may continue to merge or unpend with the new merged patient which the system created. Otherwise, the system will take you back to the Select Patients to Merge screen.

Unpending Patients

Unpending patients is the term used for marking possible duplicate patient records as true non-duplicates. The steps taken to unpend patients are as follows:

Make sure all duplicates on the Merge Patients screen are completely resolved before deciding to unpend patients. All patients on the screen must be true non-duplicates.
Check the checkboxes next to all the patient ID's on the screen.
You do not need to check or select any other data. Click the Unpend button.
The system will add any pending patient on the screen as a new patient and marks all the records on the screen as non-duplicates.

Adding a Pending Patient

A pending patient is one which comes in through data exchange and matches against one or more patient records already in the system. A pending patient does not yet exist in the immunization system. The steps taken to add a pending patient as a new patient record in the system are as follows:

Check the check box for the PENDING patient you want to add.
Click the Add Pending button.
The system adds the pending patient as a new record in the system and keeps you on the Merge Patients screen. You may continue to work with the patient you just added on the Merge Patients screen.

Information Provided

The following table describes the basic patient information on the patients to merge:

Field	Description
SSN	The Social Security Number of the patient.
Primary Name	The primary name of the patient in (Last Name, First Name Middle Name) format.
Name Suffix	The suffix, such as Jr. or Sr., which the patient appends to his or her last name.
Date of Birth	The date when the patient was born in MM/DD/YYYY format.
Birth Certificate #	The state birth certificate number assigned to the patient. This field is populated through the immunization system vital loads.
Birth Order	The number indicating which order the patient was born in for cases of twins, triplets, etc.
Date of Death	The date when the patient died.
Death Certificate #	The state death certificate number for the patient. This information is populated from a vital load.
Gender	The sex of the patient: Female, Male, or Unknown.
Races	The races of the patient: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Black or African-American, White, or Other Race. The system will store all races of patients that are merged together into one record.
Ethnicity	The ethnic background of the patient: Hispanic or Latino, Not Hispanic or Latino.
Language	The language to be used on any reminder recall mailed to the patient or patient's parents/guardian(s).
Medicaid ID	The Medicaid ID for the patient.
Primary Address	The address where the patient currently resides.
Historical Address	The previous addresses of where the patient previously resided.
Phone Number	The phone number where the patient or patient's parent/guardian may be reached.
Cell Number	The cell phone number where the patient or patient's/guardian may be reached.
E-mail	The E-mail where the patient may be reached.
Mother's First Name	The first name of the patient's mother.
Mother's Maiden Name	The last name of the patient's mother before she was married.
Mother's HBsAg Status	The Mother's HBsAg Status of the patient.
Provider-PCP	The physician or other medically trained personnel who serves as the patient's primary care provider.
School	The school which the patient currently attends.
Occupation	The occupation of the patient.
Birth Country	The country where the patient was born.
Birth State	The state where the patient was born.
Birth County	The County where the patient was born.
Record Locked	This is the record lock indicator. If it is Yes, then the patient is locked and does not want any future edits or modifications to occur to his or her record. If it is No, then the patient's record is not locked. Merging a patient record with any record lock indicator as being 'Yes' will keep the newly created merge record as being locked.
Purge Immunizations	This is the Purge Immunizations indicator. If it is Yes, then the patient has had immunizations purged and does not want any future immunizations added to his or her record. If it is No, then the patient's record has not been purged of immunizations. Merging a patient record with any purge immunizations indicator as being 'Yes' will keep the newly created merge record as having purge immunizations and will delete all immunizations for the newly created merge record. If inventory affects IIS Inventory they will be updated from a immunization given transaction to a dose administered transaction and the immunization will then be deleted.
Contact Allowed	This indicator tells whether a provider organization may send mailings of reminder letters to the patient.
Disclosed Ind/Date/Disclosed By	This field indicates whether or not the patient's records have been disclosed (Y/N), the date of disclosure (MM/DD/YYYY), and which organization it has been disclosed to
Sharing Ind/Date/Updated By	This field indicates whether or not the patient's records have been shared (Y/N), the date of sharing (MM/DD/YYYY), and which organization it has been shared with

The following table describes the Organizations information on the patients to merge:

Field	Description
Organization Name	The provider organization which the patient's have an association with in common.
Primary Patient ID	The primary patient ID for the patient with the Provider Organization Name.
Patient ID	The other patient identification numbers for the patient at the provider organization.
Active Ind	The patient's Status with the provider organization.

The following table describes additional information on the patients to merge:

Field	Description
AKA Names	This section lists the AKA Names for the patient.
Insurers	This section lists the insurer which the patient has coverage with.
Responsible People	This section lists the people who have legal responsibility for making choices and decisions for the patient, particularly in the case of parent-child relationships or legal guardianship arrangements. This section lists each responsible person's name, full address, phone number, and relationship to the patient.
Comments	This section lists the immunization-related comments associated to the patient record on the Client Comments tab on the Enter/Edit Patient screen. The types of comments include (but are not limited to) allergies, immunities, vaccine refusals, and medical conditions which cause complications or harmful side effects if the vaccine were administered.
Notes	This section lists non-confidential notes related to the patient's immunization record or general care of the patient.
Immunizations	This section lists the immunizations administered to the patient in ascending order by date. The vaccine group and trade name if supplied are displayed for each immunization. CAIR IIS inventory immunizations will also display the lot number and site. If there is a reaction associated with the immunization, the word Reaction will display.
TB Tests	This section lists all TB test data for the selected patient(s) in ascending order by date given. The type of test and provider are listed for each test date.
X-Ray Tests	This section lists all X-Ray test data for the selected patient(s) in ascending order by film date. The type of test and provider are listed for each test.

Functionality

The following table describes the buttons you can use on the Merge Patients screen:

Button	Description
	Click on the Merge button when you want to merge the patients, creating a new patient record with the selected merge details to replace the two patients on the screen.
	Click on the Merge Selected button to merge the two patients whose patient ID's are checked. This will create a new patient record with the selected merge details to replace them.
	Click on the Unpend button to mark all the patients on the screen as non-duplicates.
	Click on the Add Pending button to create the pending patient, which came in through Data Exchange, as a new patient in the immunization system.
	Click on the Cancel button to exit Merge Patients and return to the Select Patients to Merge screen.
	Click on the All button to select all the data for that one patient as the data to save for the final merged patient.
	Click on the None button to deselect all the data for that one patient so that none of that patient's data is saved for the final merged patient.

Notes

Required Fields Display in Blue
Some fields are so essential to the integrity of a patient's data that they must be kept on the final merged record. These required fields display in blue and include inventory doses and vital record information, such as birth and death certificate number, date of death, and date of birth entered through a vital load.

Required fields such as these must be selected when performing a merge. This requirement means that the system will prevent certain kinds of merges, such as attempting to merge two patients with different birth certificate numbers.

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Immunization De-duplication for the Merge Screen
After you select the immunization information to save on the final merge patient and click the Save button, the system will check for potential duplicate immunizations, which are doses with overlapping vaccine groups on the same date or within a 4 day window of each other.

The system will give warnings for each pair of potential duplicate immunizations. If both immunizations are historic, you should uncheck one of the historic doses. If one immunization is historic and the other from CAIR IIS inventory, you should uncheck the historic dose. If both immunizations are from CAIR IIS inventory and are for the same organization, site and lot number, then the system will automatically delete one of them and adjust the CAIR IIS inventory accordingly. If both immunizations are from CAIR IIS inventory but are for different organizations or lots, you need to back out of the Merge Client feature, call up providers and find out which CAIR IIS inventory dose can be safely deleted.

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