When trying to enter a new client into Digitail or edit an existing client account, the email field might say Email is already used! However, you can't find this client in the Patients page.
A few things are possible here:
Patient is archived.
Client account exists in a different clinic group location
Client exists, but has no pets.
A New Patients appointment or connection request with this email address is pending clinic approval.
Below, you will find each scenario explained in detail along with the solution.
Patient is archived
If you’re searching for a client account by email on the Patients page and no results appear, it may be because all pets linked to that client account are archived. To check for this, make sure to remove the Active filter from the Patient Status field, by clicking on the X button. This will allow you to see any accounts with archived pets associated with that email address.
Client account exists in a different clinic group location
If your clinic is part of a group with multiple locations and a client account doesn’t appear in the Patients search results, make sure that multiple - or all - locations are selected in the Clinic filter on the Patients page. This ensures that client accounts from other locations in the group are included in the search results.
Client exists, but has no pets
When adding a new patient for a new client, you are required to create the client account first. However, if the process is stopped before adding a patient, you may end up with a client account that has no pets, and as a result, it will not show on the Patients page.
Here’s how you can check if a client exists but has no pets:
1. From the Patients page, click on the +Add Patient button:
2. Click on Add Pet to Existing Client in the top right:
3. Now you can search by client name or email here - if an account with the email address that is in use shows up - this is the duplicate account with no pets associated.
👇 Starting from this point, you may select one of the following options:
1. Add pet account
You can now add a new pet to this existing client, by clicking on the Proceed to the next step: Patient information button.
2. Assign already in use email address to existing client account
When editing an existing client account, you may see the error message Email address already in use! - even if you can’t locate another account with that email address.
You can assign this email address to an existing client account using the Merge Clients/Patients function, using the steps below:
navigate to Profile (top right image) > Administration > Clinic (left panel) > Merge Clients/Patients > Merge Clients tab
In the Client to Keep field, select the existing account you want to associate with the email address.
In the Client to Remove field, select the duplicate account that currently has the email address associated with it and has no pets.
Once the merge is complete, the email address will automatically populate in the Email field of the client account.
Please find detailed instructions on how to merge client and patient accounts in this helpful article.
A New Patients request with this email address is pending clinic approval
You may be unable to add an email address to a client account if there’s a pending request using that email address, awaiting clinic approval.
The client may have requested an appointment or sent a connection request through the Pet Parent App. If their account is not yet connected to your clinic, these requests will appear on the New Patients page, where you’ll have the options to accept or cancel them.
Simply navigate to the New Patients page, by clicking on the Digitail icon in the top left of your screen. From here, you can:
1. approve the request by clicking on the Accept button under the Actions menu (this way you won't need to create a new client profile from scratch)
or
2. cancel the new pending request by hitting the Delete icon, so you can add the email address to the existing client account.
If the pending request is rejected, the client will continue using their separate pet parent app account, which will not be linked to the clinic’s client account. As a result, they won’t see any pet profiles created or stored in the clinic’s system.
We recommend accepting the request first, then merging the client account, followed by merging any duplicate patient profiles.
💬 If you can’t find a client profile using the steps above and the email address is still taken, please contact our Support team via the Help widget located in the lower right of any page in your account. We're always happy to help 😊