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Adding Your First Patient

Overview​

You can get patients into Coral two ways: add a single patient manually, or import them in bulk from a CSV file. This guide covers both.

Add a patient manually​

Step 1 — Open the Patients list​

From the navigation menu, go to Patients.

The Patients list with the + New Patient and Import buttons

Step 2 — Start a new patient​

Click + New Patient to open the patient form.

The + New Patient button at the top right of the Patients list

Step 3 — Fill in the patient's details​

Complete the form. The key fields are:

  • First name and Last name
  • Preferred name (optional)
  • Date of birth
  • Gender
  • Address, City, State, Zip code
  • Phone and Email
  • Account number — your practice's ID for this patient (optional)
  • Notes (optional)

The New Patient form fields

tip

The Non-patient (insurance dependent only) checkbox is for people who aren't patients themselves but are needed on a claim — for example, a subscriber whose plan covers the patient as a dependent.

Step 4 — Save​

Click Save Patient. The new record appears in the Patients list and is ready for visits and claims.

The Save Patient button

Importing patients in bulk​

To bring in many patients at once, use Import on the Patients list. Coral reads your CSV, shows you a preview of exactly what it will do, and only writes the rows you approve — nothing is saved until you confirm.

Step 1 — Open the import page​

On the Patients list, click Import. Choose the CSV Type that matches your file — Coral (Default) is the standard format described below.

The Import Patients page showing the CSV Type selector, the expected CSV format, and the Upload and Preview button

Step 2 — Prepare your CSV​

Your file must contain these columns:

account_number, address_line1, address_line2, city, date_of_birth,
email, first_name, last_name, phone, sex, state, zip_code

Two values have specific formats:

  • date_of_birth — use M/D/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD
  • sex — use Male, Female, or Unassigned

Step 3 — Upload and preview​

Click Choose File, select your CSV, then click Upload & Preview. Nothing is imported yet — Coral first shows you what it found.

Step 4 — Review what will change​

Coral matches each row against your existing patients by name and date of birth, then labels every row:

  • New Patient — no match found, so the patient will be created.
  • Update — matches an existing patient, but some details differ (an address, for example). The Changes column shows each field that will change, with the old value struck through next to the new one.
  • Unchanged — matches an existing patient exactly, so it's skipped.

Use the checkboxes to choose which rows to apply, and the Hide unchanged toggle to filter out rows that need no action.

The import preview showing two rows labelled New Patient and an Import 2 New button

The import preview showing a row labelled Update with the changed address field, alongside an unchanged row that will be skipped

Step 5 — Apply the import​

Click the confirm button — it names exactly what will happen, such as Import 2 New or Apply 1 Updates. Cancel discards the import without changing any records.

Next steps​