This article explains how system administrators can use the “Link/Unlink” tool to change a client’s Personal ID.
- “Link” = change the Personal ID of client record(s) to match the Personal ID of another record.
- “Unlink” = change the Personal ID of a client record so that it no longer matches the Personal ID of another record.
Note: “Linking” is not the same as merging. Linking allows you to assign the same Personal ID to records to indicate that they are associated with the same client, but it does not merge those records.
There is no limit to the number of times a client’s Personal ID can be changed.
Use Case Examples
Linking
Consider the case of a client with two different profiles in Clarity: one that is shared across the instance, and one that is private. Merging those two records could result in confidentiality issues. Instead, you can use the Link tool to change the Personal ID of one of the records to match the Personal ID of the other, indicating that the two records represent the same person.
Unlinking
Consider a set of twins whose client records have the same date of birth, race and ethnicity, gender, and similar names. If Clarity identifies those records as duplicates and assigns them the same Personal ID, you can use the Unlink tool to change the Personal ID of one of the records to indicate that they are associated with different people.
Getting Started
To access this function, navigate to Launchpad > MERGE and click the LINK/UNLINK CLIENTS tab.
You can search for a client by entering their full or partial name, dates of birth, or any combination of those terms in the text field and clicking SEARCH.
A list of clients matching your search criteria will be displayed, with columns for Personal ID, Unique Identifier, Date of Birth, the last four digits of the client's Social Security Number, and the date when the record was last updated.
Any clients in the search results with the same Personal ID will be listed under a “Duplicate Clients - [personal_id]” group name. Users can click on the client’s name to open the client’s profile page.
Linking
The Linking process involves adding clients and/or groups of Duplicate Clients from the search results to the Client Queue in the right sidebar by hovering over the client/group and clicking the “plus” sign next to the name:
- Start by clicking the ”plus” sign for the client/group with the Personal ID that you want to assign to other records.
The client/group will then appear in the Client Queue in a bold font.
- Next, click the “plus” sign for the clients/groups with the Personal ID that you want to update.
These clients/groups will be added to the Client Queue underneath the client/group in bold.
Note: Clicking the trash can does not delete the client’s account. It simply removes the record from the Client Queue.
Once you are ready to link the client records, click LINK. The following pop-up appears: “You are about to link the clients, and assign all clients the Personal ID [personal_id of the primary group/client]. Do you wish to continue?”
Click OK to assign the Personal ID of the primary client/group to all of the other clients/groups in the Client Queue. A green “Successfully linked” banner will appear at the top of the screen.
Note: “Linking” is not the same as merging. Linking allows you to assign the same Personal ID to records to indicate that they are associated with the same client, but it does not merge those records.
Unlinking
The Unlinking process allows you to assign a new Personal ID to a client record that has the same Personal ID as other client record(s) but is actually for a different person.
To Unlink a client, hover over their name in the search results and click the “minus” sign.
The following pop-up appears: “You are about to change the Personal ID for this client. With this action, Clarity will generate a new Personal ID for this client. Do you wish to continue?”
Click OK to assign a new Personal ID to the client record. A green “Changes successfully saved” banner will appear at the top of the screen.
After a system administrator changes a client’s Personal ID, users who hover over the information icon on a client’s profile page to view the client’s Personal ID will see a yellow banner saying, “Client’s Personal ID has been manually changed by a system administrator.”
Exclusion from Automatic Deduplication
As described in our How Do I Create a New Client Record article, the system has an algorithm that automatically identifies new/recovered/updated client records that match an existing client record and deduplicates them by updating the Personal ID of the new/recovered/updated record to the Personal ID of the matching record.
With this release, we are updating the logic for the automatic deduplication function so that it will never apply to Linked/Unlinked records. In other words, if a system administrator manually changes a client’s Personal ID using the Link/Unlink feature, that client’s record will be excluded from the automatic deduplication algorithm for the life of the client record.
Audit Log for Changes to the Personal ID
The Audit Log on a client’s profile will track the date the Personal ID was created/updated and what the Personal ID was changed from/to.
Changes made by the deduplication algorithm will list “Admin Admin” as the user; changes made by a system administrator will list the user’s name.
Data Analysis
The "Personal ID Manually Updated" field answers whether or not a client's "Personal ID" has been updated manually. This field is available in the "Clients" view, in the Client Model, HMIS Performance Model, Coordinated Entry Model, and Data Quality Model.
Published: 05/28/2024