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OutSmart Guide

Merging Duplicate Patient Records

When the same person ends up with two patient records in OutSmart — usually because they booked online without OutSmart recognizing them, or because of an import — the right way to combine the records is to merge them, not to delete one. Deleting a record permanently removes its charts, appointments, intake forms, and documents. Merging keeps everything by moving it into the surviving record first.

The Patient Merging Tool does this for you. You pick which record to keep (the Master Record) and which to remove (the Duplicate Record), transfer the data from the Duplicate into the Master, and then remove the Duplicate.

When to Merge — and When Not To

Not every situation where you see two records is a real duplicate. Before you merge, decide which case you’re in:

SituationWhat to doWhy
Same patient, two records caused by manual error or a data import. Both records have the same person’s name and details.MergeStandard duplicate. Safe to combine.
Same patient, second record was created by Online Booking or a SmartForm Guest Link. Their identifying info (first name, last name, date of birth) didn’t match the existing record cleanly enough for OutSmart to recognize them, so a new record was created.Merge — and consider keeping the newly created record as the Master, or copying the new identifying info into the older record before removing the new oneThe patient is going to keep self-identifying the same way next time they book online. If the surviving record doesn’t reflect how they present themselves, the same duplicate will be created again.
Two records exist because the patient was seen by different practitioners, sometimes at different clinics, and each practitioner created their own record for that patient.These may not be duplicates at all. Confirm with each practitioner before merging.In a multi-practitioner setting, separate records can reflect legitimately separate care histories rather than a data-quality problem. Merging them may not be appropriate.

If you’re not sure which case applies, stop and check with the practitioner who created the older record before merging.

Who Can Use the Merging Tool

Both admin staff and practitioners can use the tool, but what data the tool can move depends on your role:

Logged in asWhat transfers from the Duplicate to the Master
Admin staffAll clinic data on the Duplicate record — charts, appointments, intake forms, and documents — regardless of which practitioner created each item
PractitionerOnly the data you yourself created on the Duplicate record. Data created by other practitioners stays attached to the Duplicate record and does not transfer.

This is why multi-practitioner clinics should have admin staff do the merging. A practitioner running the tool can’t pull other practitioners’ charts off the Duplicate into the Master, so the merge is incomplete and the Duplicate record can’t be fully cleaned up.

In a single-practitioner clinic where the practitioner is also the clinic owner, this distinction doesn’t matter — they own everything anyway.

Finding the Tool

  1. From the Main Navigation Menu, click Patients to open the Master Patient List.
  2. In the toolbar at the top of the patient list, look for the Patient Merging Tool icon. Hover over it to confirm the label.
  3. Click the icon to open the tool.

Step-by-Step: Merging Two Records

  1. Open the Patient Merging Tool from the Master Patient List toolbar.
  2. Load two patient records into the tool. The records appear in two side-by-side panels — by default, the left panel is the Master and the right panel is the Duplicate. Review the charts, documents, and demographics in each panel to confirm which record has more useful history. If the right-side record should be retained instead, click Set As Master to flip the assignment.
  3. Transfer the documents and data. In the Patient Documents and Data section, click Transfer All. This moves all Smart Charts, Smart Forms (intake forms), uploaded documents, and appointments from the Duplicate record into the Master record.
  4. Review the demographics. In the demographics section, you can either transfer all the demographic information from the Duplicate to the Master in one click, or update individual fields selectively. Manual edits are allowed at this step — for example, if neither record has the right address, you can type the correct one into the Master.
  5. Remove the Duplicate record. Click Remove Record on the Duplicate panel.
  • If you’re logged in as admin staff, the entire clinic is unlinked from that record — the record no longer appears in any of your clinic’s patient lists.
  • If you’re logged in as a practitioner, only your own account is unlinked from that record — other practitioners who had access to it still see it.

What Gets Transferred

When you click Transfer All, the following moves from the Duplicate to the Master:

  • Smart Charts — all medical chart entries
  • Smart Forms — all completed intake forms and questionnaires
  • Uploaded documents — all files in the Documents Module that were attached to the Duplicate record
  • Appointments — all past and upcoming calendar appointments
  • Demographics — name, contact info, date of birth, address, etc. (transferred together as a block, or selectively field-by-field)

If you’re a practitioner running the tool, only items that you yourself created transfer. Other practitioners’ charts, forms, documents, and appointments stay attached to the Duplicate record.

Picking the Master Record

The Master is the record you want to keep. As a general rule, pick the older record with more information as the Master, and merge the newer record into it. That preserves the longest continuous history for the patient.

There’s one common exception. If the Duplicate was created by Online Booking or a SmartForm Guest Link because the patient’s identifying details (name + date of birth) didn’t match the existing record, you may want to either set the new record as the Master (then merge the older record’s data into it), or transfer the newer identifying details into the older record’s demographic fields before removing the new record. Otherwise, the next time the patient self-identifies the same way online, OutSmart will create the same duplicate again.

Reversing a Removal

Removing the Duplicate doesn’t permanently destroy it — it unlinks it from your account (or from the entire clinic, if you’re admin staff). You can re-link to that patient record at a later date if you discover you need to undo the change. See Linking a Patient to Other Practitioners or Offices for how to re-link to a patient.

The data transferred to the Master during the merge stays on the Master. Re-linking to the removed record gives you access to whatever was on the Duplicate before the transfer, not a copy of what’s now on the Master.

Preventing Duplicates in the First Place

Once you’ve cleaned up a duplicate, a few habits help reduce how often it happens again:

  • Search the patient list before creating a new patient record manually. A quick name search at the top of the Master Patient List will show you existing records with similar names.
  • Keep patient records accurate. OutSmart matches Online Booking requests to existing records based on first name, last name, and date of birth. If those are wrong on the existing record, the patient won’t match and a new record will be created. See How OutSmart Identifies an Existing Patient.
  • When importing patient data, don’t re-import the same file. OutSmart’s importer doesn’t dedupe against the existing patient list — each row in your import file becomes a new record. See Importing Patient Demographic Data.

Troubleshooting

After a merge, the patient has two Patient Portal logins — which one should they use?

When duplicate patient records are created, the patient sometimes ends up with two separate Patient Portal accounts — one for each record. Patients log in to the portal with their email address, and the email address is what tells OutSmart which portal account to open. Merging the patient records does not merge the portal accounts.

After the merge, tell the patient which email address to log in with so they’re hitting the portal account that’s connected to the surviving (Master) record. To find the right one:

  1. Open the Patient Workspace for the merged patient.
  2. Open the Medical Access Code tab.
  3. The email address shown there is the one connected to the active portal account.

Pass that email to the patient and let them know to use it going forward. The other portal account (tied to the other email) still exists but no longer has the patient’s clinical data behind it.