Overview

Client Merges are a useful tool in ClientTrack that help us ensure that clients are not duplicated in our HMIS system.  But how can we ensure that we're not losing any information about the client when two profiles are merged?  This article seeks to put your worries at ease by outlining what client data is migrated (or kept) and what client data is deleted.

For information about how to merge clients, please reference this article.

Migrated Data

Data in a client merge that is taken from the Source Client and added to the Target client is considered Migrated Data. This means that the data is integrated onto the Target Client's profile in the same place that it appeared in the Source Client's profile and appears now in chronological order despite which profile the data came from.

Migrated data includes:

Enrollments

Enrollments from both the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear on the list of enrollments on the Target client's dashboard.

If enrollments were duplicated (appeared on both Source and Target clients) before the merge, these duplicates will remain once the merge is complete.  It is important to review enrollments after a client merge is complete to ensure that no duplication exists.

It is also important to review the merged enrollments to ensure that there are no overlapping enrollments in housing or shelter type projects.

Services

Services from both the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear on the list of services on the Target client's dashboard.

If services were duplicated (appeared on both Source and Target clients) before the merge, these duplicates will remain once the merge is complete.  It is important to review services after a client merge is complete to ensure that no duplication exists.

Client Files

Client files from both the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear on the list of Client Files on the Target client's dashboard.  These will be organized in the Target client's files in the order in which they were uploaded to the client's profile (newest to oldest) regardless of which client the files came from.

Client Goals

Client goals from both the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear on the list of Goals on the Target client's dashboard.  These will be organized in the Target client's goals in the order in which they were uploaded to the client's profile (newest to oldest) regardless of which client the goals came from.

Assessments

All client assessments from the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear on the Target client's dashboard. This includes assessments associated with the enrollment (Master Assessments) as well as Other, RHY, and SPDAT Assessments.

Case Notes

Case notes from the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear in the Target client's Case Notes section of their dashboard.  Note that case notes that are not marked as Read Only will still only be editable by users logged into the organization that created the case note after the merge.  Read only case notes remain read only when merged. Case notes that are restricted to Organization or User will keep this designation after the merge takes place.

Case Managers

Case managers for both the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear in the Case Managers section on the Target client's profile.  This includes case management assignments that have ended.

Current Living Situation

Current Living Situation updates from the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear in the Current Living Situation section of the Target client's profile.  Merged Current Living Situation updates will appear in chronological order based on the Information Date (regardless of which profile the update came from).

Interested Others

Interested Others from the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear in the Interested Others section of the Target client's profile.

Notifications

Notifications from the Source and Target clients will be merged and appear in the Notifications section of the Target client's profile.

Special circumstances for migrated data

In these special circumstances, the data is migrated but appears in a different place than where it was originally kept within the client's profile.

Name

Client's Name is originally collected during the Intake (Entry Assessment) when entering a client into HMIS.  While this information is only collected once, it can be edited on the client's profile under the Edit Client section.  This section only has one place to store the client's First and Last name, so all other names the client has gone by in the past (including the Source Client's name if different than the Target Client's name) are stored in the Alias History section of the Client's Profile.  In a merge, if the Source Client's name is identical to the Target Client's name, no additional aliases will be added to the Alias History.

Family

In a merge, the Target Client's Family is inherited as the Current Family for the client (under Family Members section).  The Source client's family will be stored under the Family History section as a non-current family (marked by a red X).  It is important to review the client's Family History after the merge is complete to ensure that the Current Family is the correct (most current) family for the client.

Address History

Client address information is originally collected on the Intake (Entry) assessment.  This information is viewable on the client's profile under the Edit Client section.  When a client merge takes place, the address from the Target client will appear in the address under the Edit Client section, while the Source Client's address is stored in the Address History section of the client's profile.  All other addresses previously stored on the client's profile for both the Source and Target clients will also appear in the Address History section, sorted by Begin Date (oldest to newest).

Additional information collected alongside address (Email, Home Phone, Work Phone, and Msg Phone) is linked to the address and behaves the same during the merge (ex. Target Client's email will appear under Edit Client, Source Client's email will appear in Address History).

Note: Both the Source Client and Target Client's addresses will appear as the Current Mailing address in the Address History when the merge takes place.  It is important to review these addresses to ensure that only one Current Mailing address appears in this section (apply an End Date and change all other addresses from Current Mailing to Previous Mailing except for the Current Mailing address).

Veteran Information

Following a merge, the Veteran Information from the Target client is kept and displayed under the Veteran Information section of the client's profile.  If veteran information was collected on the Source Client's profile, it will be viewable under the Veteran Assessments (under the Common Assessments section of the Target Client's profile).

Deleted Data

In a merge, data that is overwritten from the Source Client to the Target Client is Deleted Data.  In these special cases, the data held in this field has one and only one value, and so the data from the Source Client is lost in favor of the data from the Target Client.  The data from the Source Client that is overwritten is not displayed anywhere on the Target Client's profile, but can be queried by searching for deleted records.

Deleted data includes:

Client Intake Data

This includes identifiable data displayed on the Client Profile which is collected on the Intake (Entry Assessment).  Elements include:

Social Security Number

Date of Birth

Gender

Veteran Status

Race/Ethnicity

Pregnancy Status

It is important to note that if these data elements are not collected (blank) on the Target Client's profile and there is data on the Source Client's profile for that element, the data will not migrate to the Target Client's profile and it will remain blank.

Permanently Deleted Data

In these special instances where there is one and only one place to keep this data, the Target Client's data is kept and the Source Client's data is permanently deleted.  This data that is deleted during the merge is not retrievable.

In the instance where the Target Client does not have this information collected, the Source Client's data is migrated to the Target Client's profile.

Information Release

If both the Source and Target clients have Information Releases saved to their profile, the Target Client's Information release is kept and the Source Client's release is permanently deleted.  If no Information Release was collected on the Target Client's profile, then the Source Client's release will be migrated to the Target Client's profile.  If neither client in the merge has an Information Release, no Information Release will be saved on the Target Client's profile.

It is important to review both the Source and Target Client's Information Releases prior to merging to ensure that the Information Release kept on the Target Client's profile (after the merge) is up to date.  If an expired Information Release is migrated to the Target Client's profile during a merge, the Target Client's profile may be locked.

Photo 

Like with the Information Release, the Source Client's Photo is permanently deleted after the merge.  If the Target Client does not have a photo saved to their profile and the Source Client does, the Source Client's photo will migrate to the Target Client's profile.  If there is no Photo saved to either the Target or Source clients' profiles, the Photo will remain blank.