> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.byblend.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Why can't Blend find a prescription I sent?

> Almost always the prescription arrived but didn't match — a name or date-of-birth typo, a patient who doesn't exist in Blend yet, or a product code that isn't mapped. Blend does not discard prescriptions.

If a prescription is missing from a patient's chart, it has usually arrived and simply failed to match. Blend does not silently discard prescriptions. Three causes account for nearly all of it: a typo in the patient's name or date of birth, a patient who hasn't been created in Blend yet, or a product code that isn't mapped to one of your products.

If a prescription you sent hasn't matched, the Blend team will typically find and address it.

## Check which link is missing

```bash theme={null}
# Prescriptions that arrived with no patient attached
curl "https://api.byblend.com/api/v1/prescriptions?patient_id=null&page_size=200" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {access_token}"

# Prescriptions that never matched a product in your catalog
curl "https://api.byblend.com/api/v1/prescriptions?prescription_product_id=null&page_size=200" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {access_token}"
```

If the prescription shows up in the first query, it's a patient-matching problem. If it shows up in the second, it's a product-mapping problem.

## The three typical mismatches

<Warning>
  **The patient doesn't exist in Blend yet.** A prescription can legitimately arrive before its patient. It waits, unmatched, until the patient is created — at which point Blend links it. Create the patient with `POST /patients`, ideally carrying the same `external_id` your prescriptions reference.
</Warning>

<Warning>
  **The product code isn't mapped.** Blend looks for your `product_code`, `sku`, `id`, or `name` in the inbound prescription. If none of those are set on the product in Blend, nothing matches. Set them with `PATCH /products/prescription/{product_id}`.
</Warning>

<Warning>
  **The name or date of birth is wrong on the prescription.** Surescripts prescriptions match on name plus date of birth, so when the inbound data carries a typo — a transposed birth year, a misspelled surname — no automatic match is possible. Typos originate upstream, at the prescriber's office or a transferring pharmacy, which is why the prescription itself is intact but unmatched.
</Warning>

<Tip>
  Send `external_id` on your patients and reference it in your prescriptions. Identifier matching is definitive and immune to spelling — it removes this entire class of problem. See [using your own IDs](/guides/your-own-ids).
</Tip>

## A prescription with no order is not a missing one

Blend receives far more prescriptions than orders. A prescription sitting with no order attached is usually just waiting for the patient to order, not lost. What's worth escalating is an **order** that can't ship — see [finding orders missing prescriptions](/guides/orders-missing-prescriptions).

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Get prescriptions" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/api-reference/prescriptions/get-prescriptions">
    `patient_id=null`, `prescription_product_id=null`
  </Card>

  <Card title="Create a patient" icon="user-plus" href="/api-reference/patients/create-a-patient">
    POST /patients
  </Card>

  <Card title="Update a prescription product" icon="pills" href="/api-reference/products-and-materials/update-a-prescription-product">
    Map `product_code` and `sku`
  </Card>

  <Card title="How matching works" icon="diagram-project" href="/guides/prescription-matching">
    Patient, product, and order rules
  </Card>
</CardGroup>