What linking does
A PhoxBook appointment starts as booking details typed by the patient or by staff. Linking it tells PhoxBook which patient in your dispensing system it belongs to. Once linked:
The appointment shows a green Linked button with a View profile option that opens the patient's dispensing-system record.
The patient's other appointments at your pharmacy that share the same email address and date of birth are linked at the same time, so you do it once per patient, not once per visit.
Future tools that read the dispensing system for an appointment (for example, automatic completion when a prescription is filled) know which patient to look at.
Linking is saved in PhoxBook only. Nothing is written to your dispensing system.
Linking is turned on by head office
Head office turns patient linking on or off for each store. It is off unless head office has turned it on for your store, even when your store is connected to its dispensing system.
While it is off:
there is no Patient Linking in the side menu and no link button on appointments or in Find Patient;
you cannot pick the patient from your dispensing system when you book;
Start on a minor ailment appointment opens the assessment straight away with the patient's booking details;
appointments linked before keep their link, and View profile still opens the record.
To have linking turned on for your store, ask head office.
Which button you see
The button depends on how your pharmacy is connected. Your pharmacy may have one or both:
Button | Your connection | What it searches |
Link to Kroll | PartnerLink (Kroll via TELUS) | The live Kroll roster. Can also create a Kroll profile and submit an ADT for approval in Kroll. |
Link to PhoxHub | PhoxHub (Kroll, Fillware or PharmaClik) | Your dispensing system's patients. Link only — PhoxBook cannot create patients there. |
If your pharmacy has neither connection, or head office has not turned linking on for your store, no link button appears.
Where to link
Appointment details — open any appointment (from the calendar, the queue, or Find Patient). The link button sits under the patient's name.
Find Patient (Ctrl + K) — each appointment row has a link icon. Green means already linked; click it to change the link.
Patient Linking in the side menu: a list of every patient at your pharmacy whose appointments are not linked yet, one row per patient, with a Link button on each. A Kroll (PartnerLink) pharmacy also gets a Workflow Queue entry. If your pharmacy has both connections you will see Patient Linking (Kroll) and Patient Linking (PhoxHub).
Linking to PhoxHub, step by step
Click Link to PhoxHub. The dialog opens with the booking's details on the left and a search of your dispensing system on the right. The search runs by itself using the booking's first and last name (at least 3 letters of a name are needed).
Pick the matching patient in the results. Each result shows a match score. Selecting one loads the record's phone, email and health card so you can compare every field side by side.
Read the comparison banner. It names the fields that do not match, for example "Date of birth, phone and email do not match."
"Name and date of birth match. Safe to link." — click Link now.
Date of birth does not match — this is probably a different person, often a family member booked under a shared email. Choose Not this patient. Link only if you have confirmed with the patient that this is the same person.
Other fields differ or "Not enough matching information" — confirm the identity with the patient (photo ID, verbal confirmation, insurance card), then click Review & link and record how you confirmed it. The note is saved on the appointment with your name.
The dialog closes and the button turns green: Linked to PhoxHub. Open the menu on it for View profile or Change link.
Not the right patient?
You are never stuck with the suggested record.
Not this patient marks the selected record as wrong for this appointment. It is greyed out, moves to the bottom and is not suggested again while your browser tab stays open. Click Undo on it if you change your mind.
When the records clearly disagree (date of birth, or two or more fields), Not this patient is the main button and Review & link steps back.
There is no Create new patient in the PhoxHub window: PhoxBook cannot add patients to your dispensing system. Creating a profile from PhoxBook is only possible with a PartnerLink (Kroll) connection.
No matching patient?
The patient does not exist in your dispensing system yet. Create them in your dispensing software first, then come back and search again. PhoxBook deliberately does not create patients in the dispensing system.
"PhoxHub is not connected for this pharmacy"
Your pharmacy's PhoxHub connection is off or not configured. Head office manages it under the pharmacy's Connection to dispensing settings.
Linking to Kroll (PartnerLink)
The Link to Kroll dialog works the same way — search, compare, Link Now or Review & Link, and Not this patient for a wrong record — with two additions: it can search Kroll by date of birth, and after every search (unless a perfect match is selected) it offers Create New Profile Instead, which submits an ADT that a Kroll pharmacist approves inside Kroll. When the records clearly disagree, Create New Profile Instead is the main button. Until Kroll approves, the appointment shows a pending state; see the Kroll workflow queue for progress. The Patient Linking workbench's review window follows the same rules.
Kroll needs an email address to create a profile. The create form marks it "required by Kroll" and will not send the request without one. In Patient Linking, which uses the booking's email, a booking without one tells you to create the profile from the appointment's Link to Kroll window instead, where you can enter it.
Waiting for Kroll to approve a new profile
After Create Profile, the new patient only appears in Kroll searches once a Kroll pharmacist approves the request inside Kroll.
PhoxBook checks with Kroll every few minutes and links the appointment by itself once it is approved. To check straight away, choose Check with Kroll on the appointment.
If Kroll rejects the request, the check tells you Kroll's reason. You can then link the appointment to an existing Kroll record, or resubmit the request with Retry ADT in Patient Linking.
If you link the appointment to an existing Kroll record while its request is still waiting in Kroll, reject that request in Kroll so it does not create a second record for the same patient.
Changing a link
Open the green Linked button and choose Change link. Search again and pick the correct patient. The new link replaces the old one on this appointment and on the patient's other unlinked appointments with the same email and date of birth. There is no unlink action.
Viewing a profile from the other direction
On a PhoxHub patient profile (opened from a link button or from Find Patient), the Linked appointments tab lists every PhoxBook appointment at your pharmacy that is linked to that patient. Click one to open it.
Good practice
Date of birth is the safety check. A matching name and email are not enough when families share an address; the dialog will not offer Link now unless the date of birth matches too.
Don't link a record just because it was suggested. If the details don't match, choose Not this patient.
Link before the visit where you can, from Patient Linking, so the appointment is ready when the patient arrives.
Record how you confirmed identity when you use Review & link. It is part of the appointment's record.
Need help?
Visit the Help Center from your profile menu, or press Shift + ? for keyboard shortcuts.