Searching for a Patient

To search for a patient, press F3 on your keyboard or select Patient search from the toolbar. The Search screen that displays depends on the option you have set up in Preferences - General.

Selecting a Search Input screen

From Preferences - General select your preferred default Patient Search screen view:

Select one of the following methods of input:

• Single input - When you search for a patient, the Patient Search screen displays by default:

  

  This search will try to match your terms to the following fields:

  • Surname Forename

  • Date of Birth

  • Postcode

  • NHS/CHI Number

• Multiple inputs - When you search for a patient, the Patient Search (Form) screen displays by default:

  

  You must enter at least one of the following combinations:

  • NHS/CHI number and date of birth, or

  • Date of birth, family name and gender

How to Search for a Patient

The way you search for a patient depends on how you access Appointments:

• If you access Appointments from your Desktop you can search for a patient using the following options:

  • Surname - In full or part, for example, Smith or Smi.
  • Surname Forename - There is no comma between the names, for example, Smith John.
  • Date of Birth - In full or part, see the following examples:
    Full Date of Birth

    The full date of birth can be typed as:

    • DDMMYY, for example, 9th December 1980 would be 091280.
      Note - The 091280 format is only valid for patients born within the last 100 years.
    • DDMMYYYY, for example, 9th December 1980 would be 09121980.
    • YYYY-MM-DD, for example, 9th December 1980 would be 1980-12-09.
    Partial Date of Birth

    The partial date of birth can be typed as:

    • YYYY, for example,1980.
    • MMYYYY, for example, 091980.
  • Postcode - In full or part, for example, AB12 3CD or AB12.
  • NHS/CHI Number - In full.

• If you access Appointments through the Vision 3 Home screen you can search for a patient using the following options:

  • Surname - In full or part, for example, Smith or Smi.
  • Surname, Forename - You must use the comma between the names, for example, Smith, John.
  • Surname, Forename, Date of Birth - In full or part, for example, Smith, John, 1980.
  • Surname, Date of Birth - In full or part, for example, Smith, 091980.
  • Date of Birth - In full or part, see the following examples:
    Full Date of Birth

    You can enter the full date of birth in the following ways:

    • DDMMYY, for example, 9th December 1980 would be 091280.
      Note - The 091280 format is only valid for patients born within the last 100 years.
    • DDMMYYYY, for example, 9th December 1980 would be 09121980.
    • DDMMMYYYY, for example, 9th December 1980 would be 09DEC1980.
    Partial Date of Birth

    You can enter the partial date of birth in the following ways:

    • YYYY, for example,1980.
    • MMYYYY, for example, 091980.
    • MMMYYYY, for example, DEC1980.

National Patient Search

A National Patient Search searches for patients in England registered at TPP practices. This is useful if you work in a federation of practices using multiple software providers.

Sorting Patient Search Results

If you receive a high number of results, you can use the available sorting options to group the results and navigate them with greater ease:

To sort the patient search results:

1. Select the required sorting option, for example Age .
2. The search results sort accordingly.