How to Add New Patients to a Team

Introduction

Adding patients to your team is a core workflow in CAREFUL that allows you to bring existing patients into your care or create entirely new patient records. The system includes built-in duplicate detection to help prevent creating duplicate patient records, and you can search for existing patients across the organization before creating new ones.

Prerequisites

• You must be a member of at least one team
• To add a patient to a specific team, you must be a member of that team

Steps

Option A: Adding an Existing Patient to Your Team

1. Click the Add patient button in the sidebar (you'll see a users icon next to it)
2. The "Find a Patient" dialog opens with a search form
3. Enter search criteria to find the patient:
   • First Name * (required) - Enter at least 2 characters
   • Last Name * (required) - Enter at least 2 characters
   • Nat.ID (NHS Number) - Optional
   • Medical Record Number - Optional
   • Date of birth - Optional
   • Gender - Optional dropdown (Male, Female, Other)
4. As you type, search results appear automatically after a brief pause (300ms). Results show the patient's name, date of birth, Nat.ID, and Medical Record Number. External patients are marked with an orange "External" badge.
5. Click on the patient you want to add from the dropdown results
6. The dialog changes to "Add a Patient" and displays the selected patient's information
7. Select the Team from the dropdown (required) - only teams where the patient is not already a member will appear
8. Optionally fill in:
   • Referral source - Where the patient was referred from (e.g., "ED")
   • New clinical summary - If the patient's status is INACTIVE, you can update their clinical summary
   • Patient status - If the patient's status is INACTIVE, you can change their status
9. Click the Submit button (it will show "Adding..." while processing)
10. After successful submission, you'll be taken to the patient's detail page, and the patient will appear in your team's patient list

Option B: Creating a New Patient Record

1. Click the Add patient button in the sidebar
2. The "Find a Patient" dialog opens with a search form
3. Enter at least the patient's First Name and Last Name (required fields)
4. Optionally enter other search criteria to check for existing patients
5. Click the Create Patient button at the bottom of the search form
6. The dialog changes to "Create a Patient" with a detailed form
7. If the system finds potential duplicate patients, you'll see an orange warning box:
   • "Potential Duplicate Patient" - Shows if one matching patient exists, with a message: "A matching patient record already exists in the system. Would you like to use the existing patient record instead of creating a new one?"
   • "Potential Duplicate Patients Found" - Shows if multiple matches exist, with a message: "Multiple matching patient records exist in the system. Please select one to use or create a new patient record."
   • You can select an existing patient, click Back, or click Create as New Patient to proceed anyway
8. Fill in the required fields (marked with *):
   • Team * - Select which team to add the patient to
   • First Name * - Pre-filled from your search
   • Last Name * - Pre-filled from your search
9. Optionally fill in additional fields:
   • Nat.ID - National ID/NHS Number
   • Medical Record Number - Hospital number
   • Gender - Dropdown with placeholder "Select a gender..."
   • Date of birth - Date picker (pre-filled if you entered it in search)
   • Current clinical summary - Free-text clinical notes
   • Patient status - Status dropdown
   • Referral source - Where the patient was referred from
10. Click the Create Patient button
11. After successful creation, you'll be taken to the new patient's detail page, and the patient will appear in your team's patient list

Tips

• Search auto-triggers: You don't need to press Enter or click a search button. As soon as you type 2 or more characters in any field, the search runs automatically after a short pause (300ms).

• Clear search fields: If you want to start over, click the Clear All button to reset all search fields at once.

• Check for duplicates first: Always search for existing patients before creating new ones. This prevents duplicate patient records in the system, which is especially important in healthcare settings for patient safety and data integrity.

• External patients: Patients from other organizations appear with an orange "External" badge in search results. You can still add them to your team.

• Team selection: When adding a patient to a team, you'll only see teams where the patient isn't already a member. If the patient is already in all your teams, you won't be able to add them again.

• Required fields: First Name, Last Name, and Team are the only required fields when creating a new patient. However, adding Nat.ID (NHS Number) or Medical Record Number helps with future searches and prevents duplicates.

• Inactive patients: If you're adding an existing patient whose status is INACTIVE, you'll have the option to update their clinical summary and change their status as part of the addition process.

Related Features

• How to Search for Patients - Learn advanced search techniques for finding patients across the organization
• How to Manage Team Membership - Understand team roles and permissions for patient management
• How to Update Patient Information - Edit patient demographics and clinical details after they've been added to your team