Linking to Patient Charts
Linking to Patient Charts
Problem: Sometimes we're advised by clinics that appointments are not linked to the right patient chart within OSCAR EMR.
Discussion: For clinics using OSCAR EMR, patients scheduling appointments are typically asked to provide two pieces of information:
Patient Name
Patient Health Number
However, in practice, patients rarely supply a name that exactly matches their name on file.
We therefore only rely on their patient health number when linking appointments to patient charts within OSCAR EMR. Put another way, the name supplied by a patient is ignored, only the patient supplied health number is used when doing the link.
However, the name supplied by the patient is used for the purpose for the email confirmation and email reminders sent to the patient. This is done for the purpose of patient privacy and security.
Impact: A patient may sometimes intend to book for a first patient, including supplying a correct name, but supply the health number of a completely different patient. In our experience, this most frequently happens when parents book for their children and they mix up the children's names and health numbers.
In this situation, simply manually change the patient within OSCAR to the right patient.
