What is the context?
The Patient Directory Search feature is an enhancement of the Patient Search available on the Meddbase Start Page. The Patient Directory Search feature helps to ensure appropriate access to patient records within an organisation i.e. within a single chamber or in case of larger organisations, access to patient records between chambers linked in a network.
What is the purpose of this article?
This article will describe the setup process and implications of the Patient Directory Search feature as well as describe key security aspects that need to be considered.
Setting up the Patient Directory Search
To set up the Patient Directory Search, the following steps apply:-
- From the Start Page navigate to Admin > Security Policy.
- Click Governance.
- In the Group Access section tick the Allow combined patient policies* box.
The Patient directory setup section will become available.
4. Tick the Enable patient directory box.
*This feature is required to enable the Patient Directory Search feature. Meddbase allows you to have multiple Patient Certificates, each assigned to a portion of your patients and specific Groups of Meddbase users having access rights on a given Patient Certificate but not on the other(s). Click here for a detailed article on combined patient policies.
You will be presented with the configuration options for the directory search:
1. Mandatory search fields - clicking in the field opens a list of search fields and allows you to multiselect mandatory fields. Users will need to provide details for these fields before they can find the patient in the directory*. When selected, these mandatory search fields will be marked with a dark blue bar in the patient search feature on the Start Page.
Furthermore, making fields mandatory in the directory not only makes them mandatory when creating or updating patient records, but also greys out the Add patient button on the search screen until the user has included all the mandatory fields - this makes it more likely that users will search for a record correctly before adding them.
*When the Patient directory feature is enabled, a new permission will appear on Patient Certificates called Can Find In Directory. Users who have this permission but not View Patient Demographic can find the patient by providing exact demographic details as per the settings. Once provided, the user gains temporary view access for the duration of a booking or to amend previous bookings.
2. Require mandatory fields to add patient - the mandatory fields set on Point 1. can also be required for patient registration. Ticking this box will result in the mandatory fields being marked with a dark blue bar on the patient registration page and the user will not be able to add a patient without all mandatory details provided.
3. Optional search fields - clicking in the field opens a list of search fields and allows you to multiselect optional fields. Optional fields will be relevant for both the patient search feature and adding a patient and will be marked with a light blue bar on the respective pages. (Please see .Gifs above)
4. Required optional search fields - allows you to determine how many of the Optional search fields will be required to search and/or add a patient e.g. if 3 Optional search fields have been selected but only 1 is required, the user can choose which one of the 3 they provide details for.
Using the Patient Directory Search
Once the feature is enabled and configured, performing a patient search from the Start Page will prompt the user to provide mandatory and optional details accordingly.
When they perform a full directory search the user can access the patient record for use in a booking.
If the user books an appointment for that patient into the diary of a clinician that would not normally have access to them (because they are not on a policy the consultant has access to) then the patient record will automatically be added to a ‘combined’ policy that allows multiple users or groups of users to access their record.
You can also manually add patients to more than 1 certificate to let users access them without going through the directory search route. This does not subdivide the medical record – if a consultant can access the patient record, they will be able to see medical data recorded by other users, in the interest of sharing a complete and accurate medical history for the patient.
Review date
This article was last updated on 12th of Aug in the context of Meddbase version 1.253.0.40071