Searching and filtering patients
Find a patient fast — by name, number, phone, status, tag, or registration date.
Overview
The patient list supports free-text search, tab filtering by status, and column-level sorting. The same query patterns work on every patient picker in the app — appointments, billing, prescriptions all use the same backend filter.
Prerequisites
- Any clinical or front-desk role
- At least one patient registered to find
Steps
Open the patient list. Top nav → Patients. The list defaults to the All tab with the most recently created first.
Use the search box for quick lookup. Type any substring of the patient's name, patient number, or primary phone. The list filters live as you type after a short debounce.
Switch tabs to filter by status. Tabs across the top: All, Active, Inactive, Archived. Each tab applies a status filter on top of any search text.
Sort by clicking column headers. Patient number, name, age, registration date — all sortable. The arrow on the column header shows current sort direction; click again to flip.
Adjust visible columns. Click the column-picker icon (top-right of the table) to show or hide columns. Default columns are Patient #, Name, Age, Gender, Phone, Status, Actions.
Filter by additional criteria. Click Filters to expand the advanced filter panel: by location (multi-location), by registering staff, by date range, by HMO provider, by medical alert.
Use the same flow on appointment booking. When booking an appointment, the patient picker uses the same search. Type-ahead is identical; you can also start typing on a freshly-created patient and it appears immediately.
Save a frequent filter. Click Save view after applying filters to bookmark the combo. Saved views appear above the tabs and are user-specific.
Expected outcome
- The filtered list narrows to the patients matching your criteria
- The result count appears above the table
- Browser URL doesn't update — the filter is client-only state, but saved views persist across sessions
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Search returns nothing despite obvious match | Patient is in a different status tab | Switch to All to see across statuses |
| Phone search misses leading zero | Phone stored without leading zero | Search the last 7 digits instead |
| Filters dropdown is missing some options | Some are tier-gated (HMO, multi-location) | Upgrade tier to unlock |
| Page is slow with many patients | Result set is too large | Apply more filters, or paginate via the page-size selector |
| Saved view doesn't appear for colleagues | Saved views are per-user | Each user saves their own |