Introduction

In CAREFUL, patient status is determined by team assignments. An active patient is currently assigned to at least one team in your organization, while an inactive patient has been discharged from all teams. Understanding this distinction helps you manage your patient lists and find previously discharged patients when needed.

Before You Start

No special permissions required to view this concept in action
To view inactive patients, you need access to the My Organisation page
To readmit inactive patients, you must be a member of the team you're readmitting them to

Understanding Active Patients

Active patients are being cared for by at least one team in your organization. These patients:

Appear in the My Organisation > Patients tab by default
Are visible in at least one team view
Appear in the My Patients view for their responsible clinicians
May have an organization-defined status (e.g., "Admitted", "Under Review") or be designated as No Status
Remain active even if their status is "Discharged" or "Deceased" – as long as they're still assigned to a team

Understanding Inactive Patients

Inactive patients have been discharged from all teams in your organization. These patients:

Do not appear in patient lists by default
Have no teams or users responsible for their care
Can only be viewed by filtering for Inactive status in My Organisation > Patients
Can be readmitted to a team if needed (e.g., if they return to your care)

Important Distinctions

Inactive ≠ "Discharged" Status

If your organization has a status called "Discharged", a patient can be active and yet have the status "Discharged". This makes sense when:

Your quality team is managing the patient post-discharge
An outpatient management team is still providing care
The patient is at home but still under active management

A patient only becomes inactive when they are discharged from all teams, regardless of their status label.

Inactive ≠ "Deceased" Status

"Deceased" is a special status indicating the patient has died. However, a deceased patient remains active until discharged from all teams. This makes sense when:

The patient is still on the ward where they died
They've been transferred to the Mortuary team
Documentation or administrative processes are ongoing

Viewing Inactive Patients

From the sidebar, click My Organisation
Click the Patients tab
Click the Filter button (filter icon in the top navigation bar)
Open the Patient status dropdown
Select Inactive
The patient table refreshes to show all inactive patients

The filter button will show a blue highlight when a filter is active, making it easy to see that you're viewing a filtered list.

Readmitting Inactive Patients

When you need to readmit an inactive patient (e.g., they've been readmitted to hospital), you can do this in three ways:

Option 1: From My Organisation Patients Tab

View inactive patients using the filter (see above)
Find the patient in the list
Click the Readmit patient dropdown button in the patient's row
Select the target team and new patient status
Click Submit

Option 2: From Add Patient Button

Click Add Patient from the main menu
Search for the patient by name or hospital number
Select the patient from the search results
Choose the team and status
Click Submit

Option 3: From Team View

Navigate to the team view where you want to readmit the patient
Use the Add Patient option
Search for and select the inactive patient
Set their new status
Click Submit

Important: You can only readmit a patient to a team if you are a member of that team. Administrators cannot readmit patients to teams unless they are also team members.

When Readmitting a Patient

When you readmit an inactive patient, the system:

Does not allow you to select "Inactive" as the new status (it's filtered out)
Allows you to select "No status" or any organization-defined status
Requires you to select at least one team
May prompt you to add a new clinical summary
Immediately makes the patient active again

Once readmitted, the patient will:

Appear in the team's patient list
Disappear from the inactive filter view
Be available for standard patient management activities

Tips

Default view hides inactive patients – this keeps your patient lists focused on current patients under active care
Filter persistence – your filter selections in My Organisation are saved in your session, so you don't need to reselect them each time you return to the page
Readmission requires team membership – plan ahead if you need to readmit patients to teams you're not a member of
Status vs. team assignment – remember that a patient's status label (like "Discharged") is different from their team assignments. Only team assignments determine if they're active or inactive

Discharging Patients – learn how to discharge a patient from a team
Patient Statuses – understand how to configure and use organization-defined patient statuses
Managing Teams – learn about team membership and permissions

What are Active and Inactive Patients?