Transfer or Archive Patients

When patients leave your practice or need to switch providers, DPC Pro lets you transfer or archive their records while keeping all historical data intact.

Patient rosters change over time. Patients move away, switch to a different provider within your practice, or let their memberships lapse. DPC Pro provides tools to transfer patients between account holders and archive inactive records so they do not clutter your active roster.

Archived records retain all clinical history, billing data, and communication logs. Nothing is deleted.

Transfer a Patient to Another Account Holder

A patient transfer changes which account holder is responsible for billing and family management for a patient. Use this when billing responsibility changes: for example, during a divorce, when a child reaches adulthood, or at the patient’s request.

Start a transfer

1. Navigate to the patient’s record.
2. In the Actions sidebar, select Transfer Patient.
3. Select the destination account holder from the dropdown (all active account holders are listed, excluding the patient’s current account holder).
4. Select the Transfer Type:
   • Divorce/Separation: billing responsibility changing due to separation
   • Custody Change: custody arrangement has changed
   • Age of Majority: dependent reaching adulthood
   • Patient Request: patient asked to change account holders
   • Other: any other reason
5. Set the Effective Date for the transfer (defaults to today).
6. Choose what to transfer:
   • Transfer medical records: included by default
   • Transfer appointments: included by default
   • Transfer billing responsibility: optional, must be explicitly selected
7. If applicable, enter a Court Order Number for legal documentation.
8. Add any Notes about the transfer.
9. Select Submit.

The transfer is created with a Requested status.

Transfer approval workflow

Patient transfers go through a multi-step approval process:

Step	Status	Who Acts
1. Transfer requested	Requested	Staff member initiates the transfer
2. Transfer reviewed	Approved	Manager reviews and approves
3. Transfer executed	Completed	Manager or staff executes the approved transfer

To approve a pending transfer:

1. Open the transfer from the patient’s record (visible under Pending Transfers in the sidebar).
2. Review the transfer details: source account, destination account, transfer type, and effective date.
3. Select Approve to authorize the transfer.

To execute an approved transfer:

1. Open the approved transfer.
2. Select Execute Transfer.
3. DPC Pro updates the patient’s account holder, moves family relationships, and logs the completed transfer.

Important

Once executed, a transfer cannot be undone. The patient’s billing responsibility moves to the new account holder. To reverse a transfer, you would need to create a new transfer back to the original account holder.

What happens during a transfer

When a transfer is executed, DPC Pro performs the following:

1. Updates the patient’s account holder to the destination account
2. Removes family relationships between the patient and the original account holder
3. Creates new family relationships between the patient and the destination account holder
4. Logs the transfer with timestamps and the staff member who approved and executed it (visible in the audit log)

The patient’s clinical records, visit history, practice enrollments, and documents are unchanged. The transfer only affects the billing and family relationship structure.

Note

If the patient was covered under the original account holder’s family membership, you will need to separately update or cancel the membership to remove the patient from the covered members. See Membership Status and Coverage.

Archive a Patient Record

Archiving a patient removes them from your active patient and practice lists without deleting any data. Use this when a patient leaves your practice permanently.

Deactivate a patient

1. Navigate to the patient’s record.
2. In the Actions sidebar, select Deactivate Patient.
3. Confirm the deactivation.

When you deactivate a patient:

• The patient’s active status is set to false
• All practice enrollments are set to Inactive status
• The patient no longer appears in the default active patient list
• All clinical records, documents, and communication history are preserved

Before Deactivating

Verify the following before deactivating a patient:

• Any active membership covering this patient has been updated or cancelled
• No upcoming visits remain on the schedule
• Any pending document requirements have been resolved
• The account holder has been notified if other family members are affected

Set a discharge date and reason

When changing a patient’s practice enrollment status, you can record a discharge date and reason on the practice enrollment record. This provides context for why the patient left.

Practice enrollment statuses include:

Status	Use When
Active	Patient is enrolled and receiving care
Inactive	Patient has been deactivated or is no longer attending
Transferred Out	Patient has transferred to another practice or provider
Deceased	Patient is deceased (also marks the patient as deceased at the patient level)

View Archived Patients

Archived (deactivated) patients are excluded from the default patient list, which shows only active patients with active practice enrollments.

To find an archived patient:

1. Navigate to Patients.
2. Use the search bar to search by the patient’s name, email, phone, or MRN. If the patient was recently deactivated, the search may still locate them depending on the active filters.
3. For fully archived patients, contact support or use the admin interface to locate the record.

All data for archived patients remains in the system:

• Clinical notes and visit history
• Medical history (allergies, conditions, medications, surgeries)
• Documents (uploaded files and signed documents)
• Communication history (message threads and notifications)
• Billing records (invoices, transactions, payment history)
• Transfer history (any transfers that occurred)

Restore an Archived Patient

If a patient returns to your practice, you can reactivate their record and re-enroll them.

Reactivate the patient

To restore a deactivated patient:

1. Locate the patient’s record (see “View Archived Patients” above).
2. Reactivate their patient record to restore the patient’s active status.
3. Update their practice enrollment status back to Active.
4. Assign or confirm their Primary Provider and Preferred Location.

Re-enroll in a membership plan

After reactivation, the patient will need a current membership:

1. Navigate to the account holder’s profile.
2. Enroll the account holder (and this patient) in a new membership plan, or update the existing family membership to add the patient back as a covered member.

Reactivate an account holder

If the account holder’s account was also deactivated:

1. Navigate to Customers → locate the deactivated account holder.
2. Select Reactivate to restore their account.
3. Their login access is re-enabled automatically.

Note

When reactivating a patient, their previous clinical records and history are immediately available. No data is lost during the deactivation/reactivation cycle.

Data Retention for Archived Records

DPC Pro retains all patient data regardless of archive status. There is no automatic data deletion.

What is preserved

Data Type	Retention
Patient profile (demographics, contact info)	Indefinite
Clinical notes and visit history	Indefinite
Medical history (allergies, conditions, medications)	Indefinite
Documents and signed forms	Indefinite
Message threads and communication history	Indefinite
Billing records and payment history	Indefinite
Transfer records	Indefinite
Practice enrollment history	Indefinite

Compliance considerations

• Medical records retention: Most states require medical records to be retained for a minimum period after the last patient encounter (typically 7-10 years for adults, longer for minors). DPC Pro’s indefinite retention meets or exceeds these requirements. See Data Ownership and Portability for more on how your data is managed.
• Billing records: Payment and billing records are retained indefinitely for audit and tax purposes.
• Data export: If you need to export a patient’s records (for example, to transfer to another practice’s system), contact support for assistance with data export.

Important

DPC Pro does not currently support permanent deletion of patient records. If you have a legal obligation to delete specific data (for example, under a court order), contact support for assistance.

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Related Pages

• Add a New Patient
• Patient Records Overview
• Manage Families and Dependents
• Account Holders vs. Patients
• Membership Status and Coverage
• Patient Communication Preferences

Need Help?

If you need assistance transferring or archiving patients, reach out to the DPC Pro support team at [email protected] or visit the troubleshooting guide.