Duplicate Patient Resolution

This page is the end-to-end reference for how CareLaunch prevents, detects, and resolves duplicate patient records. The Duplicate Patient Resolution tool gives administrators a way to review flagged pairs and resolve them by merging, dismissing, or removing them from the list.

Access: Platform Admins only.

Preventing Duplicates

CareLaunch reduces duplicates at the point patients enter the system, but the behavior depends on how the patient is created.

Imports auto-merge into existing records

When you import patients in bulk (batch or CSV import), each incoming row is matched against your existing patients in this order:

1. Identifier (such as an MRN or external ID)
2. First name + last name + date of birth
3. First name + last name + email

If a match is found, the import updates the existing patient record instead of creating a new one — it does not create a duplicate. This happens automatically and silently.

What this means for re-imports

If you re-import your patient roster, matching patients are merged into their existing records rather than duplicated. This is expected behavior — an import is safe to run again. New rows that don't match any existing patient are created as new patients.

Manual creation and self-registration do not reliably prevent duplicates

Neither manual patient creation nor portal self-registration performs a duplicate check that stops a duplicate from being created — the two paths behave differently, but in both cases a duplicate can still be saved:

• Manual creation (admin interface): The New Patient form does not look for an existing record and does not warn you before you save.
• Self-registration (patient portal): No duplicate check runs at all. A patient who registers again with the same details creates a new record.

Because neither path is a reliable safeguard, duplicates created this way are caught later by the Duplicates tab. Review the Duplicates tab periodically to clean them up.

How the Duplicate List Is Generated

Duplicate detection reads your organization's BigQuery export of patient records. It does not read the live chart. Opening the Duplicates tab runs that check. It is not a separate scheduled job, but a patient appears only after the export includes them. If BigQuery is not configured for the organization, the tab is empty.

By default, two records are flagged as potential duplicates when they share the same first name, last name, and gender. Date of birth and email are shown alongside each pair so you can review them, but they are not part of the default matching criteria.

Organizations can request a customized matching query if the default criteria don't fit their needs — for example, to match on additional fields. Contact support to customize matching for your organization.

The list only includes pairs that have not yet been resolved. Once a pair is merged, marked as not a duplicate, or deleted, it no longer appears in the active list.

Accessing the Tool

Open the Dashboard and select the Duplicates tab. The tool displays all unresolved potential duplicate pairs for your organization.

Use the search bar to filter by patient name if you are looking for a specific record.

Understanding the List

Each row in the list represents two patient records that have been flagged as potential duplicates. The table shows:

Column	Description
Patient 1	Name, date of birth, and contact info for the first record
Patient 2	Name, date of birth, and contact info for the second record
Date	When the duplicate pair was first detected

Row highlighting in the list does not indicate that two records share a date of birth, and the list does not show a similarity score.

Reviewing a Pair

Click any row to open the comparison dialog. This shows a side-by-side view of both records including name, date of birth, gender, phone number, and managing organization. You can click View Profile on either side to open the full patient record in a new tab.

Expand the Technical Details panel to see a field-by-field comparison of both records alongside a preview of what the combined record would look like after a merge.

Choose an action from the dropdown at the top of the dialog before confirming:

• Merge — combines both records into one (see below)
• Mark Not Duplicate — dismisses the pair as a false positive (see below)

Click Confirm to apply the action, or Cancel to close without making any changes.

Merging Records

Selecting Merge and confirming combines both patient records into a single record. Here is exactly what happens:

• Patient 1 is the surviving record. Patient 2's appointments, observations, messages, tasks, payments, and other associated records are re-linked to Patient 1.
• Audit entries are kept. An entry that recorded access to Patient 2 keeps a note of Patient 2's record ID. It is not linked to Patient 1, so it does not show in Patient 1's audit history. The identifier stored on Patient 1 does not restore that note.
• Patient 2's record is then permanently deleted. Patient 2's identifier is stored on Patient 1 so you can see which record was merged in.
• The duplicate entry is removed from the list after a successful merge.

Merging is permanent

Merging cannot be undone, and the merged-away record is permanently deleted. Review both records carefully in the comparison dialog before confirming.

Very large patient records can occasionally fail to merge and return an error. If a merge fails, contact support rather than retrying repeatedly.

Marking as Not a Duplicate

If the two records belong to different patients, select Mark Not Duplicate and confirm. This dismisses the pair and removes it from the active list. No patient data is changed or deleted — the two records remain separate and independent.

Use this option when the system has flagged two records that look similar but are genuinely different people.

Deleting a Duplicate Entry

Deleting removes the duplicate pair from the list without merging or altering either patient record. This is useful when a flagged pair is outdated, invalid, or was created in error.

To delete a single entry, open the comparison dialog and close it, then use the bulk delete flow described below for individual items by selecting just that one row.

note

Deleting a duplicate entry does not delete the patient records themselves. Both patients remain in the system unchanged.

Bulk Operations

To act on multiple pairs at once, use the checkboxes on the left side of the table to select rows. The toolbar updates to show the number selected and reveals two bulk action buttons:

Bulk Merge / Mark Not Duplicate

1. Select one or more rows using the checkboxes.
2. Click Merge in the toolbar.
3. In the confirmation dialog, choose an action from the dropdown:
   • Merge — merges all selected pairs
   • Mark Not Duplicate — dismisses all selected pairs as false positives
4. Click Confirm to proceed.

Bulk Delete

1. Select one or more rows using the checkboxes.
2. Click Delete in the toolbar.
3. Confirm the deletion in the dialog.

Bulk delete removes the selected duplicate entries from the list without affecting the underlying patient records.

Tips

• Compare date of birth, gender, and phone in the comparison dialog before you merge. Row highlighting in the list does not indicate a date-of-birth match.
• Use View Profile to open a patient's full record in a new tab before deciding.
• A close match does not guarantee the same person. Verify both records before merging — merges cannot be undone.
• Mark rather than delete when unsure. Marking a pair as Not Duplicate keeps a record of the review decision.