Merging Patient Portal Users

Occasionally you'll run into an issue with Patient Portal access where there are two duplicate users able to access the same patient information on the Patient Portal. This can occur when the office creates a user for the Portal, while the patient also creates a user from the Portal as a new patient. This can cause headaches and thankfully there's an easy solution; the Merge Tool.

Merge ToolThe interface will look slightly different depending on which workflow you use to access the Merge tool. We'll cover each option in order.

Double-clicking a pending patient's new online appointment

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This window appears when you double click a pending patient's new Online Appointment in the Schedule.  This allows you to search for an existing patient with the same name so you can merge the new record into the existing patient's. The advantage of following this workflow is that the patient can retain the username and password they set themselves.

Note: A patient that requests an appointment online and designates that they are new to the office will have their appointment outlined in orange on your schedule. Once the new patient has an account created, their appointment will appear like any other appointment in MacPractice.

The Allow This Portal User to Continue to Access This Patient checkbox at the top of the window allows the portal user who created the request will continue to have access to this patient account. Typically you'll want this checked.

The Patient's name will be displayed. If MacPractice recognizes a name similar to one in the database, any matching names will appear in the window and will be selectable. This will help eliminate any duplicate patient accounts.

When a patient account is selected, two columns are displayed, Entered Online and Final MacPractice Demographics.

The Entered Online column shows the information that was entered online. If the box next to the information is checked, then that information will overwrite any pre-existing information that may exist in the account already. If there is no information, then the checked box will ensure that the blank is filled in.

The Final MacPractice Demographics is a preview of the information as it will displayed in the patient's account once the Merge Tool has been used. Working in conjunction with the Entered Online column, it is possible to see what existed in any of the given fields by toggling the checkbox in the Entered Online column. If something existed previously, it will show here when the box next the name of the item is unchecked.

Note: If there are multiple phone numbers listed, they can be manipulated into any display order wished by dragging and dropping them appropriately within the box.

When you are satisfied, you can use the "Add to Existing Account" button in the lower left to merge this user with this patient.

If the patient is new and will be in their own account, then you'll want to click the Create button to create the account.

Merging Users via the Portal Access Sub Tab

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You can also access the Merge Tool by reviewing the patient's Portal Access Tab, located in the Patients Ability > Patient Tab, then selecting two users that have access to this patient. Right/control-click to reveal the "Merge Portal Users..." option. 

From here, you'll simply want to double check the information of each Portal User account and determine which one you'd like to keep. Select that one and click the Merge button when satisfied.