Skip to main content

​
Patient Profile Fields

A patient profile holds what doctors and pharmacies need to know about a patient: name, date of birth, gender, phone number, ID document and any other field your organisation uses. You set up the fields per shop in the admin dashboard under Settings → Profile Fields.

​
How a Profile Field Is Set Up

​
Where a Field Gets Its Value

Whatever the source, you can also set a value through the Management API with Create or Resolve Patient. Send the source the field is set up with.

​
Shop Fields

For a field with the source Shop, the Key says where on the Shopify customer the value is:
  • A customer attribute, written the way Shopify names it in the customer data, for example first_name, last_name, email or phone.
  • A customer metafield, written as namespace.key, for example custom.insurance_number.

​
When RxScale reads them

  • When Shopify creates the customer, usually at the customer’s first checkout, RxScale creates the patient profile from the customer.
  • Whenever the customer changes in Shopify, RxScale writes the customer’s current values to the patient profile, usually within seconds. No new order is needed. If you correct or complete customers in Shopify, the patient profiles are updated too. That applies whether the change comes from you, an import, an app or a Shopify Flow, and also when you backfill many customers at once.
  • Orders do not fill profile fields. The name, phone number and addresses on an order, including the shipping and billing address, are not copied to the patient profile.

​
What happens to values that already exist

  • An empty value in Shopify does not clear the value in RxScale. If you remove a customer’s phone number in Shopify, the patient profile keeps the old number. To remove it from RxScale, use Delete Patient Profile Field.
  • The value in Shopify wins. Each time the customer changes, RxScale writes every shop field the customer has a value for. A value someone changed in RxScale is replaced by the value from Shopify the next time the customer changes. Make corrections to shop fields in Shopify.

​
The Patient’s Phone Number

Phone numbers are where shop fields most often stay empty. A shop field with the key phone reads the phone number in the contact information of the Shopify customer. It does not read the phone numbers on the customer’s addresses. Depending on how your checkout is set up, Shopify can store the phone number a customer enters at checkout only on the shipping or billing address. This happens, for example, when your checkout asks for the phone number only as part of the shipping address. The customer’s own phone number then stays empty, and so does the patient profile in RxScale. The only exception is when another app, such as a marketing or booking app, fills in the customer’s phone number. Doctors and pharmacies use the phone number in the patient profile to reach the patient. If the phone field is marked Required for prescription, the patient’s orders wait in Waiting for Patient until it is filled in. To make sure every patient has a phone number:
1

Check where your checkout stores the phone number

In Shopify, open a recent order and compare the customer’s contact information with the shipping address. If the phone number is only on the address, the patient profile in RxScale has none. Under Settings → Profile Fields in the admin dashboard, check that your phone field has the source Shop and the key phone.
2

Copy the phone number to the customer for every new order

Have the phone number from the address copied to the customer when an order comes in, for example with a Shopify Flow that runs for every new order.
3

Fill in existing customers

Set the phone number on the Shopify customers who do not have one. RxScale picks up each change by itself. You do not need to resend or edit any orders.
Shopify accepts a phone number on only one customer per store. If two customers share a number, such as members of the same family, Shopify refuses it on the second customer, and that patient profile stays without a phone number.
If you cannot change the customers in Shopify, you can send the phone number with Create or Resolve Patient instead. A phone number set on the Shopify customer later replaces it.
  • Orders and Prescriptions — How orders move through RxScale.
  • Order Statuses — Including Waiting for Patient, when a required field is missing.
  • Patients API — Set, read and delete profile field values.
  • FAQ — Merging patient profiles and other common questions.