Special Character Name Search

As of 1/14/2013, all Partners entities are required to include special characters as needed in the patient’s full name if the legal name includes any of the following special characters: hyphen, apostrophe or period. See moreThis is an effort to comply with recently updated Medicare billing guidelines in order to match the patient’s exact name and will be a change from the current registration process. The changes affect Patient Lookup procedures. All new patient registrations will be entered to include special characters, but current patient names may still be listed without special characters. Therefore, it is important to use name variations when searching for a patient. .

Whenever possible, it is best to search for a patient by his or her MRN. If the patient’s MRN is not available, follow the steps to perform a name search:

Step 1

1.    In the Patient Name/MRN/SSN field (in Web Patient Lookup), enter the last name with the appropriate special characters. Then enter a comma and the full or partial first name, if available.

• If the legal last name has an apostrophe, insert an apostrophe within name with no spaces (ex. O’Brien).

• If the legal last name has a hyphen, insert a hyphen with no spaces (ex. Smith-Jones).

• If the legal last name has a period, insert a space after the period (ex. St. Cyr).

2.    Enter the patient’s date of birth in the Birthdate/Age field, if available.

3.    Click Search to view results. Determine if you've found the correct patient.

Step 2

1.    If no match is found, enter the last name without special characters. First, omit the special character with no space (ex. OBrien, SmithJones, or StCyr). Then enter a comma and the full or partial first name, if available.

2.    Enter the patient’s date of birth in the Birthdate/Age field, if available.

3.    Click Search to view results. Determine if you've found the correct patient.

Step 3

1.    If no match is found, enter the last name without special characters. This time, include a space where the special character should be (ex. O Brien, Smith Jones or St Cyr). Then enter a comma and the full or partial first name.

2.    Enter the patient’s date of birth in the Birthdate/Age field, if available.

3.    Click Search to view results. Determine if you've found the correct patient.

Step 4

1.   If no match is found, perform a phonetic search. Enter the last name with the appropriate without special characters, followed by a comma and the full first name, if available. Then select the Sounds like checkbox.

2.   Enter the patient’s date of birth in the Birthdate/Age field, if available.

3.   Click Search to view results. Determine if you've found the correct patient.

For more information, see the User Guide.