The Community Health Index (CHI) is a population register, which is used in Scotland for health care purposes. The CHI number uniquely identifies a person on the index. The current CHI number consists of the 6 digit Date of Birth (DDMMYY) followed by a 3 digit sequence number and a check digit.
Before you can submit a claim, the patient's CHI number must be found and saved to their record in Dentally.
Performing a CHI Search
To find the patient's CHI number, you can perform a search from the Details tab in the patient's record. This searches the NHS server for the patient, based on their name, date of birth, address details and registered dentist.
If the patient already has a CHI number saved in Dentally, it will be displayed in the box in the Details tab of their record. If not, clicking the magnifying glass will perform the search.
A successful search will display the message and update the patient's record.
Unsuccessful Searches
All searches require the Dentist field to be set first. If a search is completed and an exact match cannot be found, possible matches will be suggested. For example, if the patient's name and address match, but the date of birth is incorrect, it could be that the date of birth in Dentally has been entered incorrectly. These suggestions will be listed under the patient's CHI number box. Select the option from the list and make sure the patient's details match.
If a match cannot be found at all, you can search the alternative NHS database. If this secondary search fails and a CHI number cannot be located for the patient then Dentally will add a marker onto the claim for the patient, this shows that a search has been performed but has not found the correct CHI.
This will allow you to submit the claim to the NHS. The "temporary" CHI (marker) can only be used once and another search would need to be performed to allow the claim to be sent.
Once the NHS receives this claim with the 'temporary' CHI number they will be able to see you have tried but failed to locate the patient's actual CHI number and will be able to check that the CHI number is available on their end.
You shouldn't need to contact the NHS unless you want the actual CHI.
Troubleshooting - Incorrect CHI number
Sometimes you have a CHI number that doesn't match the date of birth. It could be one of two things:
The patient is mixed up with a relative and practitioner services need to do some back end work to sort it out (relatively rare) - This can ONLY be sorted out by talking with Practitioner Services.
The original date of birth was entered incorrectly into Dentally. There is a form which Practices can complete here which asks Practitioner Services to remove the incorrect CHI number and update the patient's record allowing the Practice to search again for the correct CHI number: https://nhsnss.org/services/practitioner/dental/patient-details/patient-detail-amendents/