Updating patient demographics

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

Patient demographics data is used 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 patient demographics.

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

Dashboard view > Patient header > Update information
Patient data > Demographics

Patient header (Update Information)

This is the same window used when adding new patients, and is the quickest way to update demographics.

It includes all the basic demographic information like Name and Date of Birth. The Address & Extra tab is used for secondary details, such as Family Doctor and Emergency Contact details.

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

Steps

From the patient chart, ensure you are in the Dashboard View.
Click Update Information, and the Update Patient window opens.
Make any updates as needed, and click Save.

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

From the patient chart, click Start/Open > Patient Data.
Click the Demographics folder to expand it.
Click the demographics category you want to update, and a new window opens showing additional fields.
💡 Tip: If you want to add a secondary option, you need to click +Add Additional category name. For example, you can add both the mother and father to the Additional Contacts field.
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	Ability to set primary and secondary languages.
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 March 03, 2023