If the same patient was added more than once, you can merge the duplicate patient charts into one. Start with the main patient chart (target) whose demographics you want to keep. It is typically the one that has the most up-to-date demographics. All data such as appointments, encounter notes, letters, medications, allergies, Qnaires, and so on, in the duplicate patient chart (source) will be merged into the main patient chart. Once the merge process is complete, the duplicate chart is archived.
📌 Notes:
Data in Health Profile > Obstetrical care is currently excluded from the merge process.
To merge charts, you must have the Merge Patients permission.
⚠️ Important: Merging patient charts cannot be undone. Therefore, merge patient charts when no one is using the system to prevent data loss.
Steps
1. Open the patient chart whose demographics you want to keep.
⚠️ Important: If your clinic uses TELUS CHR Connect and your patient has linked their Connect account with your clinic, keep the chart with the CHR Connect enabled icon in the patient header.
2. Click the patient avatar to open the patient dashboard, and in the patient header, click Update Information.
📌 Note: If the CHR detects possible duplicate patients for the chart, a Potential duplicate indicator appears in the chart header. Click the indicator to see the list of potential duplicate patients.
3. In the Update Patient window, click the Merge Patient tab.
💡 Tip: If you do not see this tab, request access from your CHR administrator.
The system automatically searches for potential duplicate patient charts. The CHR finds matches based on Identification, Date of Birth, Sex, First Name, and Last Name.
📌 Note: When one or more patients are detected, hover your cursor over the confidence rating to see what search criteria the chart was matched on. Match confidence is categorized as follows:
High: All criteria match (Identification, Date of Birth , Sex, First Name and Last Name).
Medium: Identification and Date of Birth and at least one other field, or all fields except Identification.
Low: No Identification match, but at least three other criteria match.
4. Review the potential matches and select the appropriate duplicate patient chart.
📌 Note: You can manually search for duplicate patients by typing a name, first name, last name, or identification in the search bar.
A confirmation window appears. The identification number of both patients being merged are displayed for you to verify one last time that it is the same patient.
5. Click Okay.
The patient merge may take up to 15 minutes to process.
Unmatched demographics from the duplicate patient (source) are recorded in the target patient chart as an admin note. In the Latest Admin Notes widget, open the note named Merged Chart: Data for Review. You can review the information and manually copy and paste it in the patient demographics if needed.
Updated November 17, 2025