That's an intriguing question because it touches on how we define a family or a group of patients. It's not just about having the same last name. It's not just about sharing a phone number or address. For instance, a family name like "Jones" might be found all over town, with different phone numbers or living arrangements, possibly including extended family members.
HYPEMedical's Third party ID can be used to resolve this conundrum by defining any selection of patients as a family group.
One time setup:
To manage my family groups, I created a third-party provider called Family_Relations. Each member of a family group will be assigned to this provider, and each family group will be given a unique policy number.
Setup for each family group:
Among the many Joneses in my database, I chose my first "real family" group: Michael, Peter, and Marion. I named them Jones44, combining their last name and the last two digits of their street number.
Here’s the process I followed:
- I searched for "Jones" in Patients \ Patient Profile \ Search.
- I selected the first member of the family group, Michael Jones.
- I clicked on "Add Third Party ID."
- I selected Family_Relations and labeled the Policy Number field as Jones44.
- After saving Family_Relations as the third-party ID, I also saved Michael Jones' patient profile.
I repeated this process for each member of the family group.
Now, when I search for Jones44, the results include all three family members: Michael, Peter, and Marion.
