> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Manage patient records

> Find a historical record, read a patient's chart tabs and activity timeline, export the registry, and see who has touched what.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Enterprise" roles="Records staff, owners and managers; editing is role-gated" note="Needs the Records care area" />

**Patient Records** is the records office's door onto the hospital's patient list. Reception uses it to register people; the records office uses it to find, correct, export and account for what is held. This page covers the second job.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Records', 'Patient Records']} />

<TaskHeader before="The Records care area switched on, and patients on the register" time="A minute to find a record" after="The record you were asked for, read or corrected, with the access logged" />

## One list, two doors

This screen is reachable from **two** places in the hospital navigation: **Front Desk → Patients** and **Records → Patient Records**. Open either and **both entries highlight at once**.

That is correct, not a fault. Reception registers patients and the records office manages them, but there is one patient list, so both service lines get their own door onto it. For registering someone, the self-registration waitlist and bulk import, see [Register and find patients](/hospital/front-desk/patients). Everything below is the records duty.

## What you're looking at

The heading reads **Patients Management** — "Register, view, and manage patient records across your clinic". **Refresh**, **Import**, **Export** and **New Patient** sit in the header, and two tabs below: **All Patients** and **Analytics**.

Above the table are **Search patients...**, a **Waitlist** filter, and a **Columns** dropdown headed **Visible Columns**. Seventeen columns exist; on by default are **Patient ID**, **Full Name**, **Category**, **Age**, **Gender**, **Phone**, **Nationality**, **Consultations** and **Last Visit**.

Hidden until you switch them on: **Blood Type**, **Occupation**, **Country**, **Email**, **Genotype**, **Triages**, **Lab Tests** and **Prescriptions**. The last four are what a records enquiry usually needs — turn them on and the answer is often in the row without opening anything.

## Find a historical record

<Steps>
  <Step title="Search by what you actually have">
    **Search patients...** matches on the name and the hospital number. If you only have a phone number or an email, switch that column on with **Columns** and sort by it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Narrow with the counts">
    Switch on **Consultations**, **Triages**, **Lab Tests** and **Prescriptions** to tell two similarly named people apart before opening either chart.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the record">
    Use the row's **⋯** menu → **View details**. **Edit** appears only for staff whose role may change a record.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Read the chart

An open record shows the patient's identity, contact details, medical background and current medications, with two tabs beneath:

* **Insurance** — the payers and policies held for this person. A coverage answer from the [records desk](/hospital/records/overview) has to be entered here, because it needs a payer chosen from your hospital's own list.
* **Recent Activity** — **Patient Activities**, "Timeline of patient activities": encounters, orders and events, newest first. A patient with nothing yet reads **No Activities Found**.

Documents sent to this person are listed on the record too, each with a **Document Audit Log** — who was sent it, when they opened it, and when they signed. That log is what you produce when somebody asks whether a consent was actually seen.

## Export the registry

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the sheet">
    Select **Export**. The **Export patient registry** sheet opens — "Download every patient record in \{hospital} as a single CSV file. The same column layout is accepted by the importer for round-trip edits."
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check the scope">
    It states how many records are ready to export, and lists every column that will be included, so there is no guessing what leaves the building.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Download">
    Select the download button, which names the record count. Large registries stream incrementally — "Streamed straight to disk — large clinics are downloaded incrementally." Empty cells stay empty, so re-importing the file will not overwrite data with blanks.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  **An export is the whole patient registry as a plain file, and it leaves the hospital's protections behind the moment it lands on a device.** Export only when you have a reason you could defend, store it encrypted, and delete it when the reason has passed. The export is logged; what happens to the file afterwards is not.
</Warning>

<AuditNote action="Opening a patient record and exporting the registry" />

## Who can do this

**Role** decides whether the screen opens. **Patient Records** needs the **Records** care area in **Settings → Facility**; **Patients** under Front Desk needs the **Front desk** one. On Enterprise an owner controls which roles see either group under **Settings → Role Navigation**.

**Permission** decides what you may do inside:

| Action                      | Who by default               | Permission                                                            |
| --------------------------- | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Search and **View details** | Records and front-desk staff | **Search for clients**                                                |
| Create a record             | Front desk and records staff | **Create client profiles**                                            |
| **Edit** a record           | Staff whose role may edit    | Role-gated; without it the record is read-only and **Edit** is absent |
| Delete a record             | Owners and managers          | **Delete client profiles**                                            |
| Read documents on the chart | Records staff                | **View all documents**                                                |
| **Send Consent**            | Records and front-desk staff | **Share documents with clients**                                      |
| **Export** the registry     | Owners and managers          | **Settings → Data export** governs the wider exports                  |

Enforcement is **opt-in per person** — a colleague never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**. A **denied action is recorded**; an allowed one is not, so hiding a patient list from a role tidies a sidebar rather than protecting anything. Every read of a patient record is logged whether or not a permission was involved.

## Check it worked

* The record opens for the right person, with the hospital number you searched on.
* **Recent Activity** shows the encounter you expected to find.
* A correction you saved is visible on the row after **Refresh**.
* An export downloads a CSV whose row count matches the figure the sheet quoted.
* Your access appears in the [audit log](/platform/security/audit-log) with your name and the time.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Both Patients and Patient Records are highlighted">
    Expected. They are two doors onto one list — one for reception, one for the records office.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Everything is read-only and there is no Edit">
    Editing is role-gated, and a user without an editing role gets the read-only view with no error explaining it. Ask an owner or manager to check your role — see [Roles](/platform/team/roles).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I cannot find a patient I know exists">
    The search matches the name and hospital number. Try a partial surname, and check the **Waitlist** filter is off — a self-registered person who has not been approved is not on the main list yet.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Two records look like the same person">
    They probably are. Do not delete either — check which one carries the clinical history, and raise the merge with an owner before anything is removed.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The export button is disabled">
    There is nothing to export. It reads **No patients to export** on an empty registry.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Patient Records is missing from the sidebar">
    It needs the **Records** care area in **Settings → Facility**. The **Front Desk → Patients** door needs the **Front desk** one — see [Care areas](/hospital/get-started/care-areas).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Is this a different list from the front desk's?">
    No. It is the same list and the same records, reached from the records group instead of the front-desk group.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I see who else has opened a patient's record?">
    Yes — every read is written to your hospital's audit log with the reader's name and the time. Owners and managers can review it under [Audit log](/platform/security/audit-log).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What does the Document Audit Log show?">
    The life of one document against one patient: sent, viewed, signed. It is the evidence that a consent was actually seen, rather than merely emailed.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I re-import an exported file to correct records in bulk?">
    Yes — the export uses the column layout the importer accepts, and empty cells stay empty rather than blanking existing data. Check a handful by hand before a large batch.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where do a patient's lab results and prescriptions live?">
    In their own modules — [Laboratory](/hospital/diagnostics/laboratory) and the [pharmacy unit](/hospital/pharmacy/prescription-history). The counts here tell you they exist; the modules hold the detail.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="patient records" />