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Find a Patient in the Client Registry - ECR.03

Last updated on February 27, 2019

The Client Registry must only be searched when a business or clinical need requires it. General browsing of the Client Registry is not permitted.

In most cases, you will find a patient by searching with the PHN.

When searching for a patient you may be presented with corresponding information from the Client Registry to confirm with the patient and populate their chart.

Notes

  • The Client Registry keeps historical information (e.g., prior names or addresses)
  • If that information is used to search the Client Registry it will return the patient's record with their current information (e.g., searching a maiden name will return the married name)

Existing Patients

For a patient that is already recorded in your point-of-service (POS) application, the corresponding Client Registry record will automatically be located, and any differences will be presented to you for updating.

If the patient's PHN has been merged your POS application will automatically update the patient's chart with the correct PHN, and you will receive a notification that the returned PHN has been merged.

New Patients to your Practice

Patient with PHN

Ask the patient for their B.C. health card (B.C. Services Card or CareCard) to obtain the PHN. Your POS application will use this information to query the Client Registry and return the corresponding record for you to confirm and populate the patient chart.

If you receive a notification that the PHN does not exist, contact the Client Registry Administrator at:

Patient without PHN

If the patient does not present a B.C. Services Card, review trusted identity documents, and use demographic information to locate them in the Client Registry.

The following are acceptable search combinations:

  • full first name and surname, and complete date of birth
  • full first name and surname, and street address line 1
  • full first name and surname, and postal code; or
  • full first name and surname, and phone number

A list of patient records that match your search criteria will be displayed for your review.

If the Client Registry is unable to match your search criteria you will receive a warning message indicating 'No results were returned. Please refine your search criteria, and try again.'

Confidentiality Masking

A patient may request to have a confidentiality mask applied to their Client Registry record. This will keep some or all of their personal demographic data confidential. Masking will result in the word "confidential" or an asterisk ("*") being displayed when anyone accesses the patient record in the Client Registry. Subsequent changes sent to the Client Registry will update the masked attributes; however, they will remain masked.

In order to set or remove a confidentiality mask, contact the Client Registry Administrator at:

Selecting the Correct Client

The Client Registry uses wide search parameters to ensure all possible results are returned (to a maximum of 10). The list of results displays a 'match score'; with the highest-ranking score displayed first.

Without clear search criteria, the similarity in resulting records may make it difficult to determine which is correct. To retrieve the best results, searches should be based on the patient's full name and complete date of birth; or a combination of search parameters as stated above.

Prior to selecting a client record you must validate that the information returned matches the information provided by the patient.

The following information must be confirmed prior to creating or updating a patient record in the POS application:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • gender
  • address
  • telephone number(s)

If you see similar records, you should:

  • check the spelling of the first, last, and middle names
  • check if the address has changed; and
  • look for transposed numbers in the date of birth

If there appears to be more than one record for the client, there may be multiple records (also known as "duplicates").

Multiple records may result from:

  • a patient's B.C. health card being lost or stolen
  • a data entry error creating a new record; or
  • a patient moving out-of-province and receiving a new PHN (and B.C. health card) after returning to B.C.

If your search results indicate there may be multiple records for a patient contact the Client Registry Administrator at: