Patient Search - Overview and Functions

Patient Search interface can be used to find patient records, acquire more patient information as well as the history of all orders for a specific patient.  Duplicate patient records can be merged, scan documents viewed as well as viewing of approved reports and images. 

Launch the Patient Search interface 

• Select Patient search icon on the System Manager page.

Patient search interface opens

The Search Patient interface will open regardless whether you search from the Schedule Chart, or Search patient on the System management page.

• Search criteria

• Name – Surname field.
• First – First name field.
• DOB – Date of birth.
• ID – Unique ID
• Anything – drop-down field to select:
  • SA ID
  • SA Passport
  • Non SA ID
  • Non-SA Passport
  • Type number according to selection
• Sound-ex (Last Name) – use surname ‘sounds like’ if you are not sure about the surname spelling.
• Status – use drop-down if you know the patient’s status.
• Tel – Select telephone or cell number       
  • Select – equal / start / include, from drop-down
  • Type number according to selection.

Option buttons        

• Search – to evoke the search according to completed criteria.
• Clear – to clear all search fields.
• Close – to close the Patient search interface.
• Counts per page – to enter the number of search results to display per pages.

Column Headers

Note: Not customizable and cannot be re-ordered.

• Tick-box – tick to select all patient account in a search result.
• Name – patient name.
• ID – Unique ID
• DOB – Date of birth
• Age – Patient age
• Sex – patient’s sex
• SA ID – SA ID number (or other forms of ID like SA Passport, Non-SA ID, Non-SA Passport number)
• Contact – Telephone or cell number or both.
• Address – home address of the guarantor will display if captured.
• SD – Amount of scan documents scanned for a specific patient. Clickable field – will open scan doc dialogue.
• Class – Indication if a patient is In-Hospital or outpatient.
• Ward – If an in-hospital patient and specific ward have been captured – will display in this field.
• Room – currently not in use.
• A. – Indication of how many different payment methods has been entered for the patient. Clickable field – patient modify page opens when clicking on MA entry.
• Alerts – if any information has been entered in ‘NOTES’ area under Allergies / Medical alerts / Contrast reactions / Special needs and/or Note – an icon will indicate an entry. It is a clickable icon to open the alert dialogue box to view more information.

Menu toolbar and functionality

• New Patient    

Always search with patient details first.  If no results return - Click on ‘New Patient’ to open ‘Add new patient’ dialogue.  Complete patient information to capture the patient on the system.

• History 

   

Follow the steps below to understand the use of the History button.

• Search with selective criteria to find the patient on the database. Tick the select box in front of the patient entry to select the patient.

   

• Click on History button.  Patient History dialogue opens with the following information

• The following fields will display:

• Status / Protocolling status (not currently in use) / Accession number / Description / Referring physician / Internal status / Follow up Status / Scheduled date / Study date / Reason / Station / Report / Image / Modality / Auth#

• Status –   Show the status of the Visit. 

•  

• Accession number – clickable field will open Order Modify page. 
  • On the Order Modify Page, All applicable fields can be modified, referral physician information can be updated for the visit, ICD10 Added or modified as well as access to the Exploding Charge and all its function. 

• Description – Indication of which protocol and plan has been selected. (Study description)

• Referring physician – Name of referring physician selected for the specific patient.

• Internal Status and Follow Up status - If there are any entries into these fields for the specific visit, information will reflect in these columns. 

• Scheduled date – an indication of date and time the patient has been scheduled on the schedule chart.

• Study date – only available for exam statuses higher than scheduled and arrived.

• Reason – if a reason has been entered for the specific visit in 'order modify' dialog, a message icon will display. This is a clickable field to view the message.  When moving the mouse over the 'folder', a popup message will indicate what the reason is. 

• Station - The scheduled station will be listed under the Station column as an indication into which scheduled chart station the patient was booked. 

• Report – report icon will display if there is an approved report available for the specific visit.  This is a clickable icon.  The report dialog will open – the report can be read, printed or emailed from this interface.

• Image – an image icon display for visits where images have been matched.  It is a clickable icon – the PACS will open with this specific patient’s images when clicking on this icon.

• Modality - The modality associated with the visit will display.

• Augh# - this is a clickable field and will open an interface where the auth number can be viewed.  Only applicable for studies where authorization is required. 

• Scan Doc - By selecting the Scan Doc button - the Scan Document interface will open from where the user can add scan documents and or view all available scan documents for the selected patient. 

•  

• Print button   displayed visit list can be printed.

• Close button   to close the Order view.

• Merge 

• Merging typically needs to be done if there are two records for the same patient.
  • Use search criteria to find duplicate records. Select patient accounts to be merged.

• Click the merge button.  Merge patient interface will open.

• Select from the dropdown which record will be the merger – typically the record with the correct current information.  All other accounts will be merged into this selected account. 

• Click merge, to merge all records into the top merger record.

• The records will be merged into one record and a red ‘M’ will indicate that the records consist of two or more merged records.

• Note:  See module for Linking / Matching /Merging for complete information regarding merging of accounts.

• Unmerge 

 

• Will typically be needed if a patient has been merged by mistake.

• Search for the specific merged record. Tick box to select the record.

• Click the Unmerge button to open the unmerge interface > click Unmerge.

• Prompt to confirm unmerge action.

• The records will be split into separate records.

• Print

  

• To print the search result
• Perform a search.  Select print to populate the search results to a printable page.

• Click print, to print result. Close to close the printable result page.

• Scan doc

 

• Perform a search. Tick select box in front of the preferred patient record.

• Select scan doc to open scan interface. Documents can be scanned on patient level only.  

• Search

• When any query fields are entered to search for a patient record - use Search button to perform the search. 

• Clear 

• Use the Clear button to clear all search fields.

• Save 

 

• Use save button to save any search field information you need to save as preset settings.

• Close 

• Use the Close button to close the Search Patient interface. 

• Search result count per page

• Select the down-arrow to select how many results per page should reflect per page after performing a search 

• Search records count

• If the number of records exceeds the number of results per page, the total number of records will reflect with the number of pages the records are spread across.   Click ‘2’, ‘3’ etc to toggle to next record page.