Learning About Patient Queries

Before you can view or update patient information, you need to perform a search for the patient. There are several different search capabilities within the Patient EDM. You can perform lookups for specific patient profiles using unique identifiers such as the EUID or local ID and you can perform broader searches using standard demographic information and parsed address components as criteria.

About the Patient EDM Search Function

By default, the Person Search tab includes four different search pages: Simple Person Lookup, Advanced Person Lookup (Alpha), Advanced Person Lookup (Phonetic), and Comparison Lookup. The design of the search functionality provides flexibility in designing database queries. You can narrow a search for a specific patient or a range of patients using various search fields located on the search pages. You can enter search criteria on the Advanced Person Lookup pages and then view your search results on the Search Result page. When you select a specific patient from the Search Result page, detailed information for that patient appears on the View/Edit page.

The Simple Person Lookup Page

The Simple Person Lookup page of the Person Search function allows you to perform lookups using unique identifiers to find a specific patient profile. By default, the unique identifiers you can use as search criteria include the EUID, local ID and system, or social security number (SSN) . When you perform this type of search, the Search Result page is generally bypassed and the View/Edit page appears displaying information about the matching profile. An exception to this is when different patient profiles contain the same or very similar SSNs. Performing a search for one of these profiles brings up the Search Result page with a list of matching profiles.

The Advanced Person Lookup (Alpha) Page

The Advanced Person Lookup (Alpha) page of the Person Search function allows you to perform searches against the database using a combination of demographic and address fields as criteria. The patient profiles returned by these searches are not assigned a matching probability weight to indicate how closely they match the search criteria. The searches performed on this page are exact match searches, meaning that they only return profiles that exactly match the criteria you specify. The only exceptions are street address fields, which are parsed and standardized before searching for matching profiles. Most fields in this search allow wildcard characters if the exact value is unknown.

The Advanced Person Lookup (Phonetic) Page

The Advanced Person Lookup (Phonetic) page of the Person Search function allows you to perform searches against the database using predefined combinations of demographic and address fields as criteria. The patient profiles returned by these searches are assigned a matching probability weight to indicate how closely they match the search criteria. The searches performed on this page are not exact match searches, allowing for misspellings and for nicknames. They do not support wildcard characters.

The Comparison Lookup Page

The Comparison Lookup page of the Person Search function allows you to perform a search for multiple patient profiles by entering their EUIDs. You can then select two of the resulting records to view on the Comparison page. Use this type of search if you want to compare patient profiles and you know the EUIDs of the patient profiles to compare.

The Search Result Page

The Search Result page of the Person Search function displays a list of patient profiles found in the database that closely match the search criteria you entered. The results list appears in a table, with the number of profiles returned for the search displayed above the table. This page displays information to help you identify the patient profile, such as the EUID, name, date of birth, address information, and status. This page also displays a list of the search criteria entered for the search that returned the displayed list. For more information about search results and the Search Result page, see Working with Search Results on the Patient EDM.

Types of Searches on the Patient EDM

There are several different methods of searching for patients, depending on the search criteria you enter. The search pages of the Person Search function are organized into different sections that allow you to perform different types of searches based on specific categories of criteria. On the Simple Person Lookup page, you can only perform one type of search at a time, using the fields from only one search section.

The names of the search types are configurable. Searches are described below by their default names and by their default search criteria. See your system administrator if you have questions about how your search pages are configured.

EUID Lookup

You can perform an EUID Lookup using the field in the Enterprise Unique ID section of the Simple Person Lookup page. Enter the patient’s EUID number to perform an exact match search against the database.

Social Security Number Lookup

A Social Security Number Lookup is used to perform an exact match search against the database using the patient’s social security number (SSN) for search criteria. This type of search is performed in the SSN section of the Simple Person Lookup page.

Local ID Lookup

The Local ID section of the Simple Person Lookup page consists of two required fields, System and Local ID. To increase search accuracy, you can only select a system listed in the drop-down list and the Local ID field is case-sensitive. The name of this section is configurable and might have been modified for your implementation. See your system administrator for more information.

Advanced Person Lookup (Alpha)

You can perform an alphanumeric search on the Advanced Person Lookup (Alpha) page, using a combination of demographic and address fields as criteria. Using a combination of required and optional fields, you can form a search as precise or general as you prefer. An alphanumeric search looks for profiles that exactly match the criteria as you entered it, without allowing for misspellings or typographic errors. You can use wildcard characters (a percent sign to indicate multiple unknown characters). This type of search also supports searching on a range of values, such as a range of dates for a date of birth.

Advanced Person Lookup (Phonetic)

The Advanced Person Lookup (Phonetic) function differs from the alphanumeric lookup in that it returns phonetic variations of the entered name or street address, allowing room for misspellings and typographic errors. Name and address criteria for phonetic searches are not sensitive to case or to diacritical marks. You can include any combination of address fields in the search, and you can perform partial searches on the street address by only entering the street name. An address search uses the parsed street address field components and the phonetic version of the street name. By default, you can only search on the following data combinations; however, your system might be configured for different combinations.

• First Name and Last Name

• Address Line 1 and, optionally, Address Line 2

• Last Name, Address Line 1, and, optionally, Address Line 2

• Social Security Number

• First Name, DOB, and Gender

• Last Name and Mother’s Maiden Name

The Patient EDM only searches on the above combinations that have complete data. For example, if Last Name, First Name, DOB, and Gender are entered as criteria, only the first and fifth combinations are carried out. The returned result set would include any records that match on first and last name or that match on first name, date of birth, and gender. If only First Name is entered as search criteria, no records are returned since it does not fulfill any of the combination requirements.

Comparison Lookup

The Comparison Lookup function provides a simple way to search for two or more records to compare in a side-by-side comparison. You can enter up to five EUIDs as search criteria, and all records matching any of the specified EUIDs are returned.

Searching by Ranges on the Patient EDM

Your system administrator can configure the search pages to allow you to enter a range by which to search for certain fields. For example, you might want to search for profiles with a specific first and last name but with a date of birth that falls within a five-year range. If a field is defined for searching by a user-defined range, the Patient EDM displays a “from” field and a “to” field so you can specify the range (for example, “Date From” and “Date To”). If you only enter a value in the “from” field, the Patient EDM searches for profiles with a value greater than or equal to that value. If you only enter a value in the “to” field, the Patient EDM searches for profiles with a value less than or equal to that value.

Ranges can also be defined as the entered value plus or minus a specific value. For example, a date field can be configured to search for dates that fall within a range five years earlier than the date you enter and five years later than the date you enter. Finally, ranges can be defined as specific upper and lower limits. These limits are used when no value is entered. For example, if you perform a search without the date, the Patient EDM searches between the defined lower and upper limits. If you enter only a ”from’ date, the Patient EDM searches between the date you entered and the defined upper limit. For more information about how your system has been configured for range searching, see your system administrator.

Required Fields on the Patient EDM

Certain fields might be required for the searches on the Patient EDM. If a field is marked with an asterisk (*), it is required. If multiple fields are marked with daggers (†), at least one of those fields must be populated in order to perform the search. The required fields can vary depending on the type of search you are performing.