Spruce providers can update patient contact information directly within the app to keep records organized and easy to identify. Edits made by the practice remain private to the team, are never visible to the patient, and do not change the patient's login credentials. To modify a record, open the Contact Card, select Edit, make the necessary changes, and save. To prevent confusion, the patient's date of birth appears in search results to help distinguish duplicate names. If a patient updates their own information, the practice is notified. For integrated practices, these updates sync automatically with your EHR by default. Finally, larger practices can enable Contact Membership via Spruce Support to restrict teammate access to specific records, though admins always retain full access.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Updating Patient Details as a Healthcare Professional
Spruce allows you to update your patient's contact information within Spruce to help identify and organize your patients. Your contacts in Spruce are secure and only seen by you and your team, updates and changes are not seen by patients.
As a provider, it will be important to add all of the relevant contact information (including fields like phone and email) to the contact as you learn them. This is helpful because any new conversations with the contact will automatically update to reflect the patient’s name, and any new communication will be automatically filed to the patient’s contact card.
One thing to note, updates to a patient’s contact details on the provider side won’t be reflected on the patient’s end within the Spruce app so they will not see your stored contact information on their side and it will not update their account login information (phone or email).
Therefore, adjusting the contact record may be done without concern of the patient seeing that information. This is similar to your personal cell phone contacts settings. This is helpful should you want to use nicknames or identifies you need but do need them to see.
If your patient needs to update their account login cell phone or email:
- If the patient still has access to Spruce, they can make this change in their account. Navigate to Settings > Account, then click 'Edit' in the 'Mobile Phone Number' or 'Email' section.
- If they no longer have access to the app due to verification codes being sent to their old cell number:
- The patient can email support@sprucehealth.com with their old and new number, a photo of themselves with their government issued ID next to their face and we will verify. We do not use this information for any other purpose but to verify identity.
- As their provider you can message Team Spruce Support in app with their old and new number and we can update on our end for you both.
- Once the contact information on their account has been updated by Spruce, you may wish you also update the Contact Card with their new email or phone number, since these are not linked and our update will not impact your records.
Similarly, if you update your records this will not change the patient's account login information connected to their Spruce account. Your records are visible to your practice only and are not linked to their Spruce account.
How to Update a Patient Contact
Let’s use the example that your patient’s name is Jen Smith. But let’s also say you have two Jen Smith’s in your database and you want to quickly delineate between the two at a glance.
- Log into your Spruce account.
- Go to the Contact of interest, and open their Contact Card, then select "Edit."
- Update the information you need changed, such as the date of birth in this instance on the record and save it.
Populating the date of birth will help delineate between contacts instantly. Additionally, the date of birth shows up in search as well when you search for contacts, which you can do from the global search bar on the web (just switch to the contacts section in search results) or by first navigating to the contacts tab and then searching for contacts on mobile. Seeing DOB in search results has been designed to help uniquely identify the contact you’re looking for.
Of note: If your practice is integrated with an EHR, any updates you make will, by default, sync to the connected EHR. If this is not ideal for your practice, you may write in to Spruce to have this sync deactivated. One reason to turn off demographic sync is if you want to refer to the patient in Spruce differently than their legal name in the connected systems.
Patient Experience
The reason the patient’s details are not updated in their profile is because they may be connected to more than one practice. And, the identifier that may be useful to your practice may be irrelevant to the second practice. For instance, if you are a Pediatric Practice, you may update Jen’s record to “Jen Smith (baby due Mar 15)”. But this information won’t be applicable to Jen’s dermatologist who sees Jen for mole mapping. This is just information that's internal, and endemic to the practice making the update.
Of note: If your patient were to update their name or date of birth in their profile within the Spruce app, the system will notify your practice that the patient has changed their vital details so that you will have the most current information on hand and may update your records accordingly.
Privacy
Rest assured that at Spruce we’ve ensured that any updates the provider makes to the contact card are local to the provider because this contact card represents the provider's view of this patient. This record is owned by the provider and it's a fast and easy way for the provider to update information about patients and how they refer to the patient without any of that data getting leaked to the patient.
Contact Membership
Larger practices may want to limit which teammates can view a Contact Card. If this is desirable for your organization please contact Spruce Support and we can turn on this feature for you!
Once Contact Membership is enabled you will be able to edit the "Contact Members" by scrolling down on the Contact Card to see this option. The Contact might have the whole organization as members, or just specific teammates or teams. Teammates who do not have access to a contact will not be able to search for it and it will not appear in their Contact List.
Admin users in your organization will always be able to see all Contact Cards regardless of membership settings, so please be careful with who you make an admin in your organization.
Please note the non-admin users who are not members of a Contact will be prompted to create a new contact if they are sending a message to that patient's number.
Here's a quick video sharing best practices for managing Contact Membership:
Frequently Asked Questions
Are contact updates made by a provider visible to the patient?
No, contact updates on the provider side stay private to the team and are not visible to the patient in their Spruce app.
What if a patient needs to change the phone number or email tied to their Spruce login?
If the patient still has app access, they can update it in Settings/Account; if they have lost access, they can email support@sprucehealth.com with their old and new number plus a photo with their government-issued ID, or their provider can message Team Spruce Support to handle the change.
Do contact updates sync to a connected EHR?
Yes, if the practice is integrated with an EHR, contact updates sync by default; the sync can be turned off on request by writing in to Spruce.
What is Contact Membership on Spruce?
Contact Membership is an optional feature (enabled by contacting Spruce Support) that restricts which teammates can view a specific Contact Card; teammates who are not members cannot search for or see that contact, but admins always retain full access to all contacts regardless of membership settings.