Assigning a Patient
Mail Manager is designed for the receipt and processing of clinical messages relating to a specific patient. When Mail Manager receives a message, it usually assigns the patient automatically from the information in the message.
Occasionally, the patient cannot be identified automatically. This may be because the patient does not exist on your system or because the details provided in the message are insufficient or incorrect.
An unassigned patient is highlighted by the supplied name being prefixed with an asterisk:
To assign or re-assign a patient to a message:
- From Mail Manager , you can either:
- Right click on an unassigned or unfiled message, select Assign to Patient or Re-Assign to Patient.
- Tick message(s) and select Patient arrow - Ticked - Assign to Patient or Re-Assign to Patient.
- Highlight a message and select Patient arrow - Highlighted - Assign to Patient or Re-Assign to Patient.
- The Assign Patient screen displays:
The message details are shown in the top pane, a list of possible matches to the Vision 3 patient register is shown in the bottom pane. The Match column lists by possible matches as follows:
- A match on NHS number. If there is a match on NHS number and all the other fields, you are warned when selecting another patient and strongly discouraged from doing so.
- A good match (at least the first two characters) on Surname and Forename and an exact match for both sex and date of birth.
- An exact match on date of birth.
- A good match (at least the first two characters) on Surname and Forename and an exact match for one or either of sex or date of birth.
- A good match (at least the first two characters) on Surname and Forename.
- A good match (at least the first two characters) on Surname.
- You must then either:
- Select a patient from the offered match list, or
- Choose Select to find the patient you require in the usual way, see Selecting a Patient for details if required.
- Select OK once the required patient has been selected.
All assignment and reassignment of patients are fully audited.