Patients

What Is a Patient?

A patient in VetCarePress represents a pet or animal under veterinary care. Each patient record holds the animal’s identity, physical characteristics, and medical context, and is linked to an owner (customer) who is responsible for that animal.

Patients are stored as a custom post type within WordPress.

Key Fields

Every patient record includes the following fields:

Name — the pet’s name (required)
Species — e.g., Dog, Cat, Horse
Sex — Male, Female, or Unknown
Birthdate — used to calculate and display the patient’s age
Color/Markings — descriptive text for physical identification
Microchip ID — the animal’s microchip number, if applicable
Photo — an uploaded image displayed on the patient profile
Owner (Customer) — the pet owner linked to this patient
Deceased — a status flag with an optional date of death
Notes — free-text field for additional information

Relationship to Customers

Patients and customers have a many-to-one relationship: multiple patients can belong to a single customer, but each patient is linked to one owner. This reflects the real-world scenario where a pet owner may bring several animals to the same clinic.

Species

Species are managed in WP-Admin or inline when adding a patient through the Staff Dashboard. Each species can have a custom color for visual identification on patient profiles.

Post Title Generation

Patient post titles are auto-generated in the format Patient Name — Date. You do not need to manually enter a title when creating a patient record.

Management Interfaces

Patients can be managed through two interfaces:

WP-Admin — the standard WordPress admin with fields for all patient data.
Staff Dashboard — a frontend interface with modal forms for creating and editing patients without entering the WordPress back end.

Creating Patients

VetCarePress provides two methods for creating patient records: the WP-Admin post editor and the Staff Dashboard frontend interface.

Via WP-Admin

Navigate to VetCarePress > Patients > Add New in the WordPress admin menu.
The Patient Details Metabox will appear with the following fields:
- Owner — a searchable dropdown to link the patient to an existing customer
- Species — select from the vcp_species taxonomy
- Sex — choose Male, Female, or Unknown
- Birthdate — date picker for the animal’s date of birth
- Color/Markings — free-text field for physical description
- Microchip ID — the animal’s microchip number
- Deceased — checkbox that reveals a date field when enabled
- Notes — additional information about the patient
The post title is auto-generated from the patient name and date. You do not need to enter it manually.
Gutenberg is disabled for the vcp_patient post type. All fields are managed through the classic metabox UI.
Save the record as a draft or publish it immediately.

Via Staff Dashboard

Click the "Add Patient" button in the Staff Dashboard header.
A modal form opens with the following fields:
- Name (required) — the pet’s name
- Species (required) — a Select2 dropdown with search and inline creation support
- Owner — AJAX-powered search that finds existing customers, with an inline customer creation form
- Sex — Male, Female, or Unknown
- Birthdate — split into year and optional month/day fields
- Color/Markings — physical description
- Microchip ID — microchip number
- Deceased — status toggle with date
- Notes — additional information

Inline Species Creation

When typing a species name that does not exist, a "Add New" option appears. Selecting it creates the taxonomy term immediately and assigns it to the patient.

Inline Owner Creation

If the desired owner is not found via search, a nested customer creation form can be opened directly within the patient modal. After creating the customer, they are automatically selected as the owner.

API Reference

Patient creation through the Staff Dashboard uses the REST API endpoint:

POST /wp-json/vcp/v1/patients

For full details on managing patients through the Staff Dashboard, see Staff Dashboard: Managing Patients.

Patient Profiles

Patient profiles are the primary frontend view for accessing a patient’s information, medical history, and measurements. They are designed for both pet owners and clinic staff.

URL Structure

Patient profiles are accessible via virtual URLs:

/{patient-slug}/{id}/ — the main profile page (defaults to the Overview tab)
/{patient-slug}/{id}/{tab}/ — a specific tab on the profile

The patient slug is configurable in the plugin settings.

Layout Options

Three layout variants are available, configured via Settings > General > vcp_patient_layout:

Tabs — horizontal tab navigation above the content area
Sidebar — patient details in a left sidebar with content on the right
Card — compact card-based layout

Patient Header and Sidebar

The patient header (or sidebar, depending on layout) displays:

Photo or avatar — uploaded image or a generated placeholder
Name — the patient’s name
Species badge — color-coded badge showing the species
Sex — Male, Female, or Unknown
Age or deceased status — calculated from birthdate, or deceased date if applicable
Color/Markings — physical description
Microchip ID — if recorded
Owner name — linked to the customer record

Staff Admin Banner

Users with the vcp_manage_patients capability see an administrative banner above the profile content. This banner provides quick-action buttons:

Add Temperature — opens the temperature recording form
Add Weight — opens the weight recording form
Add Medical Record — opens the medical record creation form

Profile Tabs

Tabs are displayed conditionally based on enabled record types and available data:

Overview — a summary of recent records and a patient details card
Clinical Notes — clinical examination notes and visit summaries
Diagnoses — diagnosis records with status tracking
Imaging — medical images and DICOM files
Laboratory — structured lab results with marker tables
Treatments — treatment and procedure records
Vaccinations — vaccination history and schedules
Weight History — displayed only if weight measurements exist
Temperature History — displayed only if temperature measurements exist
Messages — displayed only if messaging is enabled in settings

Record Display

Each record tab shows a paginated list of records. Every record entry includes:

Type badge — color-coded by record type
Subtype label — the specific category within the record type
Date and time — when the record was created
Author — the staff member who created the record (if author display is enabled)
View button — links to the detailed single record view
Share button — generates a share link (if sharing is enabled)

Pagination

The number of records per page is configurable via the vcp_pagination_medical_records setting.

Template Files

Patient profile rendering uses the following template files:

patient-view.php — main routing template
patient-view--tabs.php — tabs layout variant
patient-view--sidebar.php — sidebar layout variant
patient-view--card.php — card layout variant
partials/patient-tab-*.php — individual tab content templates

All templates can be overridden in your theme. See Template Overrides for details.

Weight & Temperature

Weight and Temperature Tracking

VetCarePress provides built-in tools for recording and visualizing patient weight and temperature measurements over time. These measurements appear on the patient profile and can be managed from both WP-Admin and the Staff Dashboard.

Recording Measurements

Measurements can be recorded through two interfaces:

WP-Admin — the Measurements Metabox on the patient edit screen allows adding weight and temperature entries directly.
Staff Dashboard — the patient profile view includes quick-action buttons ("Add Weight" and "Add Temperature") in the staff admin banner.

Each measurement is stored with a timestamp for historical tracking.

Weight Tracking

Weight entries are displayed on the Weight History tab of the patient profile.
A Chart.js line graph visualizes weight over time, making it easy to identify trends.
Below the graph, a data table lists all entries with date, value, and unit.
Pagination is configurable via the vcp_pagination_weight_history setting.

Weight Graph Metabox

In WP-Admin, the WeightGraphMetabox on the patient edit screen renders a Chart.js graph showing the patient’s weight history. This provides a quick visual reference while editing a patient record.

Temperature Tracking

Temperature entries are displayed on the Temperature History tab of the patient profile.
A data table lists all entries with date, value, and unit.

Units

Measurement units are configured in Settings > General:

Weight — kilograms (kg) or pounds (lbs)
Temperature — Celsius (C) or Fahrenheit (F)

Staff Dashboard Features

When managing measurements through the Staff Dashboard:

Inline edit — click the Edit button on any measurement row. The row becomes editable with Save and Cancel controls.
Inline delete — click the Delete button on a measurement row. A confirmation prompt appears before the entry is removed.

API Endpoints

The following REST API endpoints are available for measurement management:

GET /wp-json/vcp/v1/patients/{id}/measurements — retrieve measurements for a patient
POST /wp-json/vcp/v1/patients/{id}/measurements — add a new measurement
PUT /wp-json/vcp/v1/measurements/{meta_id} — update an existing measurement
DELETE /wp-json/vcp/v1/measurements/{meta_id} — delete a measurement