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Updating and validating patient demographics
Updating and validating patient demographics
Updated this week

Patient demographics are the basic identification details for the patient. They include the patient name, date of birth and address.

The CHR uses patient demographics data to categorize individuals and for identification, records matching, and administrative purposes.

There are two areas in the patient chart where you can update, or add and validate patient demographics.

⚠️ Important: The two areas share the same data points, i.e. if you update one, they are both updated.

Every time you save and confirm a patient’s demographics, the confirmation date is updated so you can quickly see the last time your confirmed demographics.

Patient header (Update Information)

This is the same window you use to add a new patient, and is the quickest way to update and validate demographics.

It includes all the basic demographic information like Name and Date of Birth, as well as additional details such as Family Doctor and Emergency Contact.

Most of the fields are self-explanatory. For a list of the more complex fields, refer to Adding patients.

Steps

1. From the patient chart, ensure you are in the Dashboard view.

2. Click Update Information and the Update Patient window opens.

3. Make any updates as needed and click Save or Save and validate.

📌 Note: If you clicked Save and validate, the Last validated date is updated to today’s date.

📌 Note: If you do not see the Save and validate button in your CHR, contact the TELUS Health support team through the support chat for more information.

Demographics in Patient Data

In addition to the demographics from the patient header, the demographics section in patient data has additional demographics and allows more customizations. For example, you can add more than one Additional Contact, or update the patient's Status to Deceased.

To see when a demographic was added or updated, click the history icon beside the desired data point.

📌 Note: The history also includes any updates made in Dashboard view > Patient header > Update Information.

Steps

1. From the patient chart, click Start/Open > Patient Data.

2. Click the Demographics folder to expand it.

3. Click the demographics category you want to update, and a new window opens showing additional fields.

💡 Tip: To add a secondary option, click +Add Additional category name. For example, you can add both the mother and father to the Additional Contacts field.

4. Make your changes, and click Save.

The additional fields are:

Field

Description

Sex & Gender

Additional Preferred Pronouns. For more information, refer to Patient preferred pronouns.

Family Doctor and Referring Doctor

Ability to add additional details into specific fields instead of a note field (License Number, Office Fax etc.).

📌 Note: It is not connected to your Contacts.

Addresses

Ability to add additional addresses, with the same fields as the patient's primary address.

Additional Contacts

Ability to add multiple additional contacts’ details, including the Contact Purpose and Relationship (Spouse, Mother, Father etc.).

Contact Purpose includes:

  • Emergency contact (also available in patient header demographics)

  • Next of kin

  • Administrative staff

  • Care giver

  • Power of attorney

  • Insurance (also available in patient header demographics)

  • Guarantor

  • Substitute decision maker

Language

Set a patient's primary and secondary languages.

If you have French enabled in your CHR, this is used to determine which language to send patient notifications in (English or French).

Status

Include if the patient is Active, Inactive, Deceased or Unknown. If deceased, you can add a Date of Death.

All statuses work the same within the CHR. You can search for and edit a chart with all of the statuses, including Deceased. To hide the chart, you must archive it.

💡 Tips:

  • The Status can be used for analytics reporting.

  • It is up to your clinic how you define these statuses. For example, Active could be defined as seen in the last x years or enrolled in a program.

  • In B.C., if you are enrolled for Longitudinal Family Physician Payment, the Active status defines patients as LFP patients. For more information, refer to LFP billing reports dashboards (British Columbia).

Updated October 8, 2024

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