Registering a patient
Create a new patient record from scratch, ready to be booked for appointments.
Overview
Every patient your clinic sees needs a record. The new-patient form captures the essentials needed to book and bill them. You can fill in additional fields (medical history, insurance, emergency contact) later from the patient profile.
Prerequisites
- Owner, Admin, Dentist, Hygienist, Therapist, Nurse, or Receptionist role
- Active subscription (or trial)
- Your clinic isn't at the patient cap for its tier (Starter: 500, Professional: 5,000, Enterprise: unlimited)
Steps
Open the patients list. From the top nav, click Patients. You see a list of existing patients with stat tiles above and a search box.
Click "+ New Patient" in the top-right. This opens the new-patient form on the route /patients/new.
Fill in the required fields. First name, last name, date of birth, gender, primary phone. The form blocks submission until all five are present.
Add the optional but useful fields. Email (for portal invites and reminders), middle name, alternate phone, address, blood group, marital status, occupation. These appear on the profile and can be filled in later.
Add an emergency contact. Name, relationship, and phone. This isn't strictly required at creation but the system flags the patient as "incomplete profile" without it, and the field is required on first appointment booking.
Set medical alerts. If the patient has a known allergy or critical condition, click Add medical alert and pick from the list (Penicillin allergy, Diabetes, Pregnancy, etc.). These show as red banners on every page that displays the patient.
Pick the registering location. Multi-location clinics: choose which location is registering this patient. Single-location: this is auto-set.
Click "Create patient". A success toast appears and you're redirected to the patient profile at /patients/[id]. The new patient also shows in the All tab of the patients list with status ACTIVE.
Record the registration fee. Before you can book this patient for an appointment, record their registration fee — see Paying the registration fee.
Expected outcome
- A new Patient entry exists with clinic,
firstName,lastName,patientNumber, andstatus=ACTIVE - A patient number was auto-generated (sequential per clinic, format like
MDP-00042) - The patient appears in the patients list and can be searched
- The patient counts toward your tier's patient limit
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Create patient button stays disabled | A required field is blank | Look for red highlighted fields above the button |
| "Patient cap reached" error | At your tier's max patient count | Upgrade tier or request a Professional/Enterprise trial extension |
| "A patient with this phone already exists" | Duplicate detection on phone | Check existing record; if it really is a different person, prefix the phone number with a country code variant |
| Patient number is missing | Briefly, on creation | Refresh the profile page; numbers are assigned synchronously and shouldn't be missing |
| Can't see + New Patient button | Role lacks edit permission | Ask an Admin or Owner; only roles permission can register |