Introduction
The patient search feature allows you to quickly find existing patients in your organisation and add them to your teams. You can search using a patient's name, National ID (NHS number), Medical Record Number, or date of birth. If a patient doesn't exist in the system, you can create a new patient record directly from the search dialog.
Before You Start
- You must be a member of at least one team to add patients
- Team members can add patients to their own teams
- Team Owners and Administrators can add patients to any team they manage
Finding and Adding a Patient
Option 1: Add Patient from the Sidebar (Any Team)
- From the sidebar, click the Add patient button at the bottom of the navigation menu
- The Find a Patient dialog opens
- Enter search criteria in any combination of fields:
- First Name (minimum 2 characters)
- Last Name (minimum 2 characters)
- Nat.ID (NHS number, minimum 2 characters)
- Medical Record Number (Hospital number, minimum 2 characters)
- Date of birth (use the date picker)
- Gender (select from dropdown: Male, Female, or Other)
- As you type, search results appear automatically after a brief delay
- Results show the patient's name, date of birth, gender icon, NHS number, and hospital number
- Click on a patient from the results list to select them
- Select which team to add the patient to from the team dropdown
- Click Confirm to add the patient to the selected team
The dialog closes and the patient now appears in the team's patient list.
Option 2: Add Patient from a Specific Team
- From the sidebar, click Teams
- Select the team you want to add a patient to
- Click the kebab menu (⋮) in the top-right corner
- Select Add patient from the dropdown menu
- The Find a Patient | [Team Name] dialog opens with your team already selected
- Enter search criteria as described above (name, NHS number, hospital number, date of birth, or gender)
- Click on a patient from the search results
- Click Confirm to add them to the team
Creating a New Patient
If your search returns no results (showing No patients found):
- Click the Create Patient button
- The dialog title changes to Create a Patient | [Team Name]
- Complete the required fields:
- First Name* (required)
- Last Name* (required)
- Nat.ID (optional)
- Medical Record Number (optional)
- Date of birth (optional)
- Gender (optional)
- Click Confirm to create the patient and add them to the team
The new patient is created in the system and added to the selected team.
Clearing Your Search
- Click Clear All to reset all search fields and start a new search
- Close the dialog at any time to cancel the operation
Searching Within Existing Patient Lists
You can also search and filter patients already assigned to teams:
From My Patients View
- Click My Patients in the sidebar
- Use the search bar at the top: type the patient's first or last name
- Results filter in real-time as you type
- Use the Patient status: dropdown to filter by patient status (e.g., Active Patients)
From a Team's Patients Tab
- Navigate to Teams in the sidebar
- Select a team
- Click the Patients tab
- Use the search bar to type the patient's first or last name
- Results filter in real-time as you type
- Use the Patient status: dropdown to filter by status
Tips
- Search results appear automatically after 300 milliseconds of inactivity — you don't need to press Enter or click a search button
- You only need to enter 2 characters in name or ID fields to trigger a search
- You can search using any combination of fields — the more criteria you provide, the more specific your results
- Patients marked with an External badge are from another organisation in the CAREFUL network
- If you accidentally select the wrong patient, click Clear All to start over
- The search is intelligent — it will find partial matches, so searching for "Smith" will find "John Smith" and "Sarah Smithson"