OpesCare
One person.
One Health ID.
The same patient is often registered at a hospital, a clinic and a laboratory, under slightly different names. The OpesCare Master Patient Index finds those records, puts them in front of a person to review, and joins them into one Health ID in a way that can be undone.
Sample records
What it is
What a Master Patient Index does.
A Master Patient Index (MPI) is the register that knows which records belong to the same human being. Without one, a patient's history is split across files, and a clinician sees only part of it: an allergy recorded at one facility is missing at another.
Why duplicates happen in Cameroon
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Name order
Family name first at one desk, last at another: "DONGMO Amara" and "Amara Dongmo".
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Spelling, accents and capitals
"Nshomé" and "Nshome", capitals, extra spaces, a middle initial added or left out.
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Missing or estimated birth dates
Many adults know only their birth year, so a record holds an estimate, or nothing.
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Several facilities, several files
Each hospital, clinic and laboratory registers the patient again under its own number.
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More than one phone number
Two SIM cards are common, so one person can give a different number at each visit.
How matching works
Evidence for, evidence against.
Matching is careful by design: it is better to ask a person than to join two different people.
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A check at every registrationEvery path that creates a patient asks one question first: does this person already hold a Health ID? It compares the national ID, the phone number (as a keyed hash, never in clear) and the name with the date of birth, ignoring case, spacing and date format. A match is returned to the person registering; nothing is merged.
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Candidates from every facilityScans compare records that share a phone number, a national ID, the same first and last name with accents folded, or an external identifier, across every facility on OpesCare.
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A score with its reasonsAgreement on name, phone, date of birth, sex, national ID or identifier adds to the score. A different sex, date of birth or national ID takes away a lot; a different phone takes away only a little. The reviewer sees the reasons, such as "name matched, phones differ".
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What it does not catch on its ownA swapped name order is not matched on the name alone. Those pairs surface through a shared phone, national ID or identifier, or a reviewer raises the pair by hand.
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Nightly and weekly scansEvery night, records created or changed recently are compared with the whole register; once a week a wider pass runs. A pair whose records changed is scored again.
How it works
From several records to one Health ID.
The path every duplicate takes, from detection to a merge that can be undone.
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FacilitiesSeveral records
The same person is registered at a hospital, a clinic and a laboratory, with small differences in name, birth date or phone.
Three files -
OpesCareA candidate pair is found
A scan finds two records that share a key and scores them, or a reviewer raises the pair by hand. Pairs below the threshold are not queued.
Score and reasons -
Records reviewerReviewed side by side
On the OpesCare review desk, a person compares the two records and their evidence, and decides: the same person, or two people.
Human decision -
Records reviewerMerged into one Health ID
The reviewer chooses which record survives and writes a reason. Every linked record moves to it; the other Health ID becomes an alias that still opens the record. The survivor's details are never overwritten, only blanks filled.
One Health ID -
AuditReversible and audited
Each merge records who, when and why, and can be undone exactly, newest first, with a written reason. It cannot be undone once a record has been deleted at the patient's request.
Undo available
How OpesCare makes it possible
Built so that nothing merges itself.
Each of these is part of OpesCare today.
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One identity check
The same duplicate check runs when a patient registers in the app, adds a family member or completes a profile, and when a facility front desk registers a patient.
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Across every facility
Detection looks at the whole register, not one facility at a time, newest records first.
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Scores that explain themselves
Each candidate carries its score, a tier (deterministic, probable or possible) and the reasons behind it.
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A person decides, every time
Even a pair that shares a national ID waits for a reviewer. No merge happens without a chosen survivor and a written reason.
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Complete, reversible merges
Every table that points at a patient is found at run time, so a merge moves everything, and the record of what moved makes the undo exact.
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Old Health IDs keep working
A card issued under the retired Health ID still opens the patient's record, and lookups follow the merge.
What it means
For patients and for facilities.
For patients
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One history, wherever you were seenAllergies, results and prescriptions from every facility sit on one Health ID.
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Your old card still worksIf two of your records are joined, the Health ID you were given first still opens your record.
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No one is joined by a computer aloneA person checks every pair, and a mistake can be undone.
For facilities
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Fewer duplicate filesA returning patient is recognised at registration instead of being registered again.
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Results on the right personResults and referrals follow the merge to the surviving record.
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Identity decisions on the recordEvery merge, rejection and undo is logged with who made it and why.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is a Master Patient Index?
It is the register that knows which patient records belong to the same person, so that one person has one record, here one Health ID, across every facility.
Does OpesCare merge records automatically?
No. Scans only suggest pairs. Every merge is made by a person on the OpesCare review desk, who chooses the surviving record and writes a reason, even when the two records share a national ID.
What if two different people are merged by mistake?
The merge can be undone. OpesCare keeps a record of every row that moved, so the undo puts back exactly those rows. Merges are undone newest first, and an undo also needs a written reason.
My name is written differently at two hospitals. Will I get two Health IDs?
Registration checks for an existing Health ID by national ID, phone number, and name with date of birth. If two records are created anyway, the scans can pair them through a shared phone, national ID or identifier, and a reviewer can raise a pair by hand when names are written in a different order.
Will my old Health ID card still work after a merge?
Yes. The retired Health ID becomes an alias of the surviving one, and scanning or entering it opens your record.
Who can see the review desk?
Only OpesCare platform administrators. Facility staff do not see other facilities' patients through it.
Bring your patients onto one Health ID.
Register your facility and every patient you see is checked against the national register before a new Health ID is made.