What this means for your practice
Use the organisation's approved identity and review rules. Keep uncertain matches separate and retain an explainable record of any authorised merge or correction.
An example to discuss with your team
Review fictional similar-name records with conflicting identifiers.
Questions to take to your supplier
Review fictional similar-name records with conflicting references. The authorised reviewer should be able to keep them separate and explain any eventual merge. Preserve a useful history of corrections. A smaller database is not a success measure if it was achieved through uncertain identity decisions.
Agree the working process
Agree what evidence establishes that two records refer to the same person or organisation, using the organisation's approved identity process. Similar names, addresses or other weak similarities may flag a case for review without proving it should be combined. Give authorised reviewers the information needed to assess a proposal and a clear way to leave uncertain records separate. Ask the supplier to demonstrate a known duplicate and a similar-looking pair that must remain distinct. Include conflicting references so the test does not reward a simple match at any cost.
Keep the reason for a merge or correction and enough history to explain the resulting record. Agree how suspected mistakes are reported and investigated rather than assuming the cleanup decision cannot be challenged. Review unresolved proposals by age and consequence, with responsible staff deciding priorities. The purpose is more trustworthy information for the work being done, not simply a smaller record count or a higher automatic-match percentage.
How to check the result
Track incorrect merges and unresolved potential duplicates.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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