How to Change the Type of an Organizational Field

Introduction

Organizational fields are custom data fields you can add to patient profiles (such as DNACPR status or frailty score). Sometimes you may need to change a field's type—for example, converting a text field to a number field, or a yes/no field to a date/time field. CAREFUL allows you to modify field types without losing the field itself or recreating it from scratch.

Before You Start

• Required permissions: You must be an Organization Administrator
• The feature is accessible from the organization management page
• Changing a field's type may affect how existing data is displayed or validated

Steps

1. Navigate to the organization management page by clicking Organisation in the left-hand menu (desktop) or burger menu (mobile)

2. Click the kebab menu (⋮) in the top right corner of the page

3. Select Edit Organization Patient Fields from the dropdown menu

4. The "Edit Organization Fields [Your Organization Name]" dialog appears, showing all your current organizational fields

5. Locate the field whose type you want to change in the list

6. Below the field name, you'll see a dropdown currently showing the field's type (Text, Number, Date Time, or Boolean)

7. Click the type dropdown and select your desired new type:

   • Text: For free-text information
   • Number: For numeric values only
   • Date Time: For dates and times
   • Boolean: For yes/no or true/false values

8. After selecting the new type, the field is automatically marked as edited

9. Click the green checkmark button (✓) to the right of the field to save your change

10. The field refreshes and now uses the new type you selected

Tips

• One field at a time: You can only edit one field at a time. When a field is being edited, the checkmark and cross buttons are enabled only for that field
• Cancel changes: If you change your mind, click the red cross button (×) instead of the checkmark to cancel without saving
• Reorder fields: You can also drag and drop fields to change their display order on patient profiles
• Hide fields: Use the Visible/Hidden toggle switch to hide fields from patient profiles without deleting them
• Add new fields: Scroll to the bottom of the dialog to add new fields with a specific type from the start

Common Pitfalls

• Existing data: Changing a field type may affect how existing data is validated. For example, changing from Text to Number means only numeric values will be accepted going forward
• Multiple edits: Remember to click the checkmark after each individual field change—you cannot batch edit multiple fields simultaneously

Related Features

• How to add new organizational patient fields
• How to reorder organizational fields
• How to hide or show organizational fields on patient profiles