Which statement correctly describes when you need to slide a master patient’s date to today?

• A. They require sliding to today only for time-sensitive changes
• B. They always require moving to today
• C. They never require sliding
• D. They require sliding to a fixed year

Answer: (A)

The main idea is: dates in a master patient record should reflect when things actually happened, and moving a date to today should only be done when the current date is meaningfully tied to the change you’re making. Sliding to today is appropriate when the action depends on the present day—time-sensitive changes that require the current date to trigger workflows, reminders, or eligibility checks. If there’s no urgent timing need, you should keep the original date to preserve the true history of events. It’s not appropriate to slide to today for every change, nor to never slide, and it doesn’t make sense to fix a date to a specific year without considering the actual event date.