A global setting determines if you are allowed to enter the same Social Security Number for multiple patients. The following options are available:
Duplicates are not allowed.
Duplicates are allowed in any two patient records if one is for a patient and the other is for a non-patient.
Duplicates are allowed in any two patient records only if one is a copy of the other.
Duplicates are allowed in all patient records.
If you enter a duplicate Social Security Number when it is not allowed, an error message, indicating that the Social Security Number is invalid, appears. The following options are available for handling duplicate Social Security Numbers when a duplicate is not allowed:
If you have verified that you entered the number correctly, cancel the adding or editing of the patient record, search for the patient whose record already has that number assigned, using the Social Security Number as one of your search criteria, and then make any necessary changes or corrections.
If, for insurance or other reasons, two patient records must exist for a given patient, leave the SS# box empty in the non-patient record (if Social Security Numbers are not required according to another global setting).