Patient Registry Search lets you search for any patient who has received care at your clinic or elsewhere in the Thrive network, not just patients on your own worklist. When a referral arrives or a patient calls, you can confirm whether a record already exists before creating a new one, preventing duplicate records and connecting care across clinics.
Searching for a patient requires identifying information like a health card number or name and date of birth, so you can find the right patient and view any available health records.
How to Search
From the worklist (New Encounter flow):
- Click New Encounter from your worklist
- Enter the patient's health card number. The province dropdown defaults to your clinic's configured province but can be changed
- If the patient doesn't have a health card, click "Don't have a health card?" to search by last name + date of birth instead
- Results show the patient's name, formatted date of birth, and masked health card number
- Select the patient to open their record or start a new encounter
Keyboard shortcut:
Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) from anywhere in the app to open the search dialog without leaving your current screen.
What You Can Search By
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Health card number | Primary search method. Province selectable from dropdown |
| Last name + Date of birth | Alternative when health card is unavailable. Click "Don't have a health card?" to switch |
Understanding Results
Search results include patients from across the Thrive network, including those seen at other connected clinics. Each result shows the patient's name, formatted date of birth, and masked health card number.
If multiple patients match, a warning banner appears so you can carefully select the correct record.
From a result, you can:
- Open their existing record to review their health history before the encounter
- Start a new encounter directly from the search result, without navigating separately
The Create New Patient Record option only appears when zero results are found, preventing accidental duplicate records.
Health Card Validation
When you search by health card number, Thrive checks the format and flags potential duplicates before they enter the system. If the number matches an existing record, you'll see the match rather than being allowed to create a second entry for the same patient.
Why This Matters
Without cross-clinic search, staff sometimes create a new patient record only to find a duplicate later, one that already existed from a previous referral or another clinic. Duplicate records mean incomplete histories and extra time spent sorting through entries. Patient Registry Search prevents this by surfacing existing records first, regardless of where care was originally delivered.