How to handle a client's request to correct their information ?

Your clients can now see what your clinic holds about them and ask you to correct anything that is wrong. You decide what happens next: nothing changes in the record until you say so.

Everyone has the right to have inaccurate information about them rectified. That right belongs to the client, but the file belongs to your clinic, so the request comes to you and you remain the one who decides.

Nothing about this happens behind your back: your client never edits the record, you receive a notification, and every decision is dated and kept.

1. What your client sees in the portal

In their portal, under My profile > My information, your client sees one card per clinic they have a record with, showing what that clinic holds: first name, last name, date of birth, email address, phone number, health insurance number and postal address.

Beside each line, an Ask for a correction link. Your client types the value they believe to be correct, may add an explanation, and sends. That is all they can do: they never modify your record, and they cannot request a change to anything else in the file.

2. How the request reaches you

A notification appears in the bell at the top of Colib, addressed to the practitioner the record belongs to, and to any additional practitioners on it. If the record has no practitioner, the notification goes to the person who created the clinic.

Clicking it opens the client record straight at the request. You can also find pending requests at any time in the Correction requests section of the record.

3. Applying a correction

Each pending request shows the information concerned, the value your client is asking for, their explanation if they wrote one, and the date of the request. Two actions are available:

• Apply the correction — Colib writes the new value into the record for you. Works for the first name, last name, date of birth, email address, phone number and health insurance number.
• Refuse — see section 5.

Applying a correction updates the record immediately, including the search index, exactly as if you had typed it yourself. Refresh the page to see the new value at the top of the file.

4. Corrections you apply by hand

A postal address is made of several parts and a city that has to be matched, so Colib does not rewrite it for you. For those requests the section says so: correct the address in the record yourself, then click Accept to close the request.

The same applies if the value your client sent cannot be used as it stands — a date that does not exist, an email address without an @. Colib will tell you it could not apply it; correct the record by hand, then refuse the request with a short explanation so your client knows it was handled.

5. Refusing a request

You are not obliged to apply every request. A client may be mistaken, or the information may be correct as recorded. What you cannot do is ignore the request: refusing requires an explanation, and your client reads that explanation in their portal.

Write it plainly, in one or two sentences: what you checked, and why the record stays as it is. "The date of birth on file matches the health insurance card provided on 12 May. Please contact us if you believe the card is wrong." is enough.

6. What your client sees afterwards

Under their list of information, your client follows each request: waiting for the clinic, correction made, or correction refused with your explanation and the date of your decision. They are never left guessing.

On your side, handled requests stay in the section, with the value asked for, the outcome, your name and the date. Nothing is deleted.

7. Checking before you apply

Some of these fields identify the person and follow them through your whole file: the name, the date of birth, the health insurance number. Treat a request on those the way you would treat the same request at the front desk.

• A spelling correction on a first name, a new phone number or a new email address: apply it without ceremony.
• A change of surname, date of birth or health insurance number: ask for the supporting document first, as you would in person.
• If something looks off, refuse with an explanation and invite your client to contact you. A refusal is not a rejection of the person; it is a documented decision.

8. Why this matters

Privacy law gives every person the right to access the information held about them and to have it rectified when it is inaccurate. As the custodian of the file, your clinic owes them an answer, and a refusal has to be justified.

Colib records the whole chain for you: the request, your decision, its date, your name, and your explanation. The client's own action history records their request too. You have nothing else to file.

Questions about correction requests? Write to support@colib.io.