Adding Patients to Teams

Introduction

The Add Patient feature allows you to create new patient records or add existing patients to your care teams. This is essential for onboarding patients when they arrive at your ward or service, ensuring all team members can access their care information and coordinate effectively.

Prerequisites

• You must be a member of at least one team
• Teams must already exist in your organization (contact an Administrator if you need a new team created)
• No special permissions required beyond team membership

Steps

Starting the Process

1. Click the Add patient button in the sidebar (or within your team view if you want to pre-select a specific team)
2. The Find a Patient dialog appears

Option A: Creating a New Patient

3. If searching for the patient returns no results, or you know this is a new patient, the system will show the Create a Patient form
4. Complete the required fields marked with an asterisk (*):
   • Team* - Select which team will care for this patient
   • First Name* - Enter the patient's first name
   • Last Name* - Enter the patient's last name
5. Complete optional fields as needed:
   • Nat.ID - NHS Number or National ID
   • Medical Record Number - Hospital identifier
   • Gender - Select Male, Female, or Other
   • Date of birth - Enter the patient's DOB
   • Current clinical summary - Add relevant clinical notes
   • Patient status - Select the patient's current status
   • Referral source - Note where the patient came from
6. Click Submit to create the patient and add them to the selected team
7. The patient now appears in your team's patient list

Option B: Adding an Existing Patient

3. If the patient already exists in the system (they were previously discharged or are in another team), the Add a Patient dialog appears
4. Select the Team where you want to add this patient
5. Review the Current clinical summary (shown for reference if the patient was previously inactive)
6. Enter a New clinical summary to update their status
7. Select the appropriate Patient status
8. Enter the Referral source if applicable
9. Click Submit to add the patient to your team
10. If you realize this should be a new record instead, click Create as New Patient to switch to the creation form

Handling Potential Duplicates

If the system finds similar existing patient records during creation:

• A Potential Duplicate Patients Found warning appears
• Review the matching records carefully
• Either select an existing patient record to use, or proceed with creating a new record if you're certain this is a different patient

Tips

• Always search first: Before creating a new patient, search thoroughly to avoid duplicate records. Duplicates can cause confusion and compliance issues.
• Required fields only: If you're in a hurry, you only need Team, First Name, and Last Name. You can add other details later by editing the patient record.
• Team selection matters: The patient will only be visible to members of the selected team. If you need multiple teams to see the patient, you'll need to transfer or refer them later.
• Clinical summary: Adding a brief clinical summary during creation helps colleagues understand the patient's situation immediately.
• Readmission workflow: For patients returning to your service, use the "add existing patient" pathway to maintain continuity of their medical record.

Related Features

• Transferring Patients Between Teams - Move a patient from one team to another
• Discharging Patients - Remove a patient from active care when they leave your service
• Taking Responsibility for Patients - Assign yourself as the primary contact for a patient's care