Have you ever found yourself scratching your head over duplicate patient records?

Well, there is no need to scratch your head anymore, let’s discuss how you can master the entire merging process in three simple steps! First, let's talk about responsibility. Merging patients is a big deal, and an irreversible process. That's why only users with Level 3 security access or higher can perform a merge in Dentally.

If you are just beginning your journey with Dentally, to merge patients and their images in your previous practice management system. This ensures the bulk of your duplicate patients will be resolved before they are transferred into your Dentally database. However, we understand this isn’t always feasible, so we have tried to make the process of merging patients as easy and seamless as possible.

Step 1: Determine your patients

When you end up with two of the same patients, you must first choose which one you will keep, we call this the ‘destination patient’. Generally, you will want to pick the patient with the most up-to-date, accurate information. The second patient record will now be your ‘source patient’. After the merge is complete the source patient will be made inactive.

Step 2: Reassign your Images

Before you go ahead and merge the patient records, it’s important to note that any images and x-rays associated with the ‘source patient’ need to be manually moved to the ‘destination patient’.

This step is very important! If you forget to move/reassign patient images to the ‘destination patient’, you are risking having to retake x-rays resulting in a potential patient safety issue due to re-exposure to radiation. This is where Dentally Vision can come in handy!

Dentally Vision allows you to quickly move images from one patient to another with its built-in ‘reassign’ feature, making it easier than ever for you to stay on top of housekeeping.

For those not yet using Dentally Vision, you will have to manually export and import your images from the ‘source patient’ to the ‘destination patient’. This can be time consuming and adds an extra step to the patient merging process, but it is a must do step to ensure an efficient merging process.

Step 3: Complete the patient merge

After moving your images and x-rays to the 'destination patient’ you are now ready to go ahead and complete the merge from the patients record. Remember this is irreversible and cannot be undone so make sure you are 100% sure you have selected the correct patients before continuing.

Once you have merged the patients the ‘source patient’ will now be archived and all information attached including appointments, correspondence and accounts will be moved to the ‘destination patient’.

It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3

1. Determine both your ‘Destination’ and ‘Source’ patients.
2. Reassign or reupload your images from the ‘Source’ to the ‘Destination’.
3. Complete the merge from the patients' records.

You will find everything you need to know on the entire process over on our help centre in our dedicated help articles linked below. If you encounter any issues merging your patients, then get in touch with Ellie Bot and out support team via Live Chat in Dentally for further assistance.
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Useful Help Articles:
​How to merge patients
​How to move / re-assign images between patients when using Dentally Vision
​How to locate an archived patient?

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