Open Dental Forum

Is there any practical difference between a patient that is made INACTIVE vs. one that is ARCHIVED? I'm chartless so, if it refers to where the chart is stored, that wouldn't be relevant to me.

Archived means the patient is history and will never come back.
Inactive means that the patient has been gone for over a year, but might still come back.

In practical terms....when the Inactive patient shows up at your office after a 3 year hiatus, he will still show up on the list of patients when you type his name in.
If you had marked him as Archived, his name wouldn't show up and then you could by accident enter him again as a new patient.

Thanks. That is logical.