Patient Merge

Patient Merge is a complex piece of software. Be sure to read the manual. This will provider an overview of how to use it with WV.

There are few WV-related issues with Patient Merge that first need to be resolved.

Due to various issues on how the MPI Parameters and the Local Site are set-up, the software may try to contact the MPI to resolve a merge, and fail to merge as a result. The actual issue should be present in any WV installation that uses the site number of 050; as the MPI thinks when comparing ICN's that start with 50 (from 050) that they are national since 050 isn't the same 50. An MPI bug to be sure, but why bother?
Patch XT*7.3*113 takes away the ability for the local site to search the patient file for duplicates, and relegates that ability only to the Central MPI.
X-ref ALK3 in file 15 on the Merge Status field has a bug in it. A completed merge (Merge Status = Merged) does not delete the ALK index entry. Thus, the IHS patient lookup routine erroneously says that the patient is a potential duplicate patient even though the patient has been merged already. I am not sure where the bug lies (IHS patient lookup or the Patient Merge software), but the ALK x-ref documentation says it's supposed to be deleted when it's merged.

I created a patch to resolve these issues and you can find it here. This patch depends XT*7.3*113, as it fixes a change in that patch.

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