How to Merge Duplicate Patients

How to Merge Duplicate Patients

When the same patient has been registered more than once, you can merge the duplicate records into a single record. All clinical data from both records is preserved.

Merge Suggestions

The system automatically detects potential duplicates based on matching name, date of birth, and contact details. Suggestions are shown with a confidence level:

Confidence	Meaning
High	Strong match on multiple fields - very likely the same person
Medium	Partial match - review recommended
Low	Weak match - may not be the same person

You can review suggestions under Settings > Patient Merging, or from a notification if your organisation has this enabled.

How to Merge

1. Open the merge dialog from a merge suggestion, or start a manual merge from the patient actions menu
2. Review the two patient records side by side
3. For each field (name, date of birth, contact details, etc.), choose which patient's data to keep
4. Review the record counts - the dialog shows how many consultations, appointments, documents, and other records each patient has
5. Click Merge to confirm

What Happens After a Merge

• The surviving record keeps the selected field values
• All clinical records, appointments, invoices, documents, and other data from both patients are combined into the surviving record
• The duplicate record's patient type is changed to Merged and it can no longer be accessed directly
• The merge is recorded in the audit trail

Rejecting a Suggestion

If a merge suggestion is not a genuine duplicate, click Reject. The suggestion is dismissed and will not appear again for that pair of patients.

Important: Merging cannot be undone. Always review the records carefully before confirming a merge.

What transfers in a merge

The merge brings the following data from the source patient onto the target:

• Demographics fallback (any field empty on the target is filled from the source)
• Consultations and clinical notes
• Documents and uploads
• Appointments
• Medications and prescriptions
• Lab results and orders
• Tasks
• Allergies
• Recalls and care gaps
• Communications history

Before you confirm a merge, the dialog will explicitly call out any data on the source patient that won't be carried across (for example, items in tables the merge engine doesn't touch). Review this list carefully — once a merge runs, the source patient is archived and that data won't be visible on the target.