Introduction
Before You Start
Permissions required: You must be a member of the team where you want to add the patient. Team membership is required to access the Add patient option.
What you'll need: Basic patient details including their first and last name at minimum. Additional identifiers like NHS number, hospital number, or date of birth help avoid duplicate records.
Steps
Adding a Patient to Your Team
- From the sidebar, select Teams to expand your team list, then click the name of your desired team
- In the team view, click the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the header
- Select Add patient from the dropdown menu
- The Find a Patient dialogue box opens, displaying a search form
Option A: Search for an Existing Patient
- Enter search criteria in the form:
- Type at least the patient's First Name or Last Name (minimum 2 characters)
- Optionally add: Nat.ID, Medical Record Number, Date of birth, or Gender
- Search results appear automatically as you type (after a brief delay)
- If the patient is found, click their name in the results list
- Click the Confirm button
- The Readmit patient to the [Team Name] team dialogue opens
- Select the destination Team if you belong to multiple teams (auto-populated if you only have one)
- Optionally select a Patient status from the dropdown (e.g., Active, Under Review)
- Click Submit
Result: The patient is added to your team. The dialogue closes, and you're redirected to the patient's profile page. Team owners who are on duty receive a push notification.
Option B: Create a New Patient Record
- In the search form, enter the patient's First Name and Last Name
- Click the Create Patient button
- The Create a Patient form opens with the name fields pre-populated
- Complete the required fields marked with an asterisk (*):
- Team (auto-selected if you belong to only one team)
- First Name (already filled)
- Last Name (already filled)
- Fill in optional details as available:
- Nat.ID (NHS number or national identifier)
- Medical Record Number (hospital number)
- Gender (select from Male, Female, Other)
- Date of birth (date picker, cannot be in the future)
- Current clinical summary (free text for diagnosis or clinical notes)
- Patient status (select from your organisation's configured statuses)
- Referral source (e.g., "ED", "GP Referral")
- Click Create Patient
Duplicate detection: If the system finds a potential match based on name and date of birth, you'll see a warning: "A matching patient record already exists in the system. Would you like to use the existing patient record instead of creating a new one?" You can click Back to select the existing patient, or Create as New Patient to continue.
Result: The new patient record is created and added to your team. The dialogue closes, and you're redirected to the patient's profile page. An audit log entry is created, and team owners on duty are notified.
Tips
Use specific identifiers: Search by NHS number or hospital number when possible to quickly find the exact patient and avoid duplicates.
Search auto-triggers: You don't need to press a search button—results appear automatically after you pause typing (300 millisecond delay).
Clear and start over: Click the Clear All button in the search form to reset all fields if you want to start a fresh search.
Team auto-population: If you only belong to one team, the Team field is automatically filled in for you, saving time.
No patients found: If you see "No patients found", the results dropdown closes after 4 seconds. You can then adjust your search criteria or proceed to create a new patient.
Validation feedback: Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*). If you try to submit with missing information, a red notification icon appears next to the submit button showing what needs correction.