Open Universal Search
Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) from anywhere in Instinct to open Universal Search directly, or select Search in the top navigation panel while on any page.
Search for a patient or chart document
Tip: When the Universal Search window opens, your recent searches appear immediately—click any recent search to jump back to a previous lookup without retyping.
Type a partial patient or owner name, an identifier (microchip, insurance, or tag number), or a word from a document title. A partial term is enough to get results.
Review the results list — patients and chart documents appear together, sorted by best match by default.
Optionally, click Add Filter to narrow results and use the sorting options to view results in a certain manner. Multiple filters can be used at a time to narrow search results:
For Patients, filter by attributes such as species, breed, rabies tag, provider, and/or location.
To see patients in the order you'd expect from our Classic Search/Lookup (most recently seen first), sort by Checked in: Newest first to view patient results by the patient's most recent check-in date.
For Documents, filter by type, patient name, and/or date range.
For Practice Library, filter by document category and/or document creation date
Click any result to open the associated record.
Search for an Invoice
Type an invoice number, account ID, or phone number.
Optionally, click Add Filter to narrow results. To find invoices, you can filter by patient, invoice status: open or closed, or invoice type: standalone vs visit.
Multiple filters can be used at a time to narrow search results.
Search for an Account
Type an account name, phone number, or account ID.
Optionally, click Add Filter to narrow results by Account Type.
Note: Account Types are managed in Admin → Practice → Account Types. The admin_account_types permission is needed to access this area of Instinct.
How to sort search results
Search results are sorted by Best Matches by default—the closest match to your search text, with identifier and exact matches prioritized. Available sorting options vary depending on the tab (All, Patients, Documents, etc.) you are searching under.
Access sorting options by clicking on Best Matches, located just above any search result.
Navigate to a page from the search
Universal Search also works as a quick navigation tool. Select any Page result in the list, and you're taken there immediately—a faster alternative to clicking through menus.
An example for using Universal Search to navigate to a Page within Instinct would be to search for Staff, instead of navigating through Admin → Practice → Staff in the left navigation panel as usual.
Take quick actions from search results
Patients and documents
Hover over a patient search result to view the panel on the right side of the search window. Use the one-click actions in the side panel, such as pinning the patient to your Status Board or checking a patient in/out—without leaving search.
Selecting the three-dot menu in the side panel opens more navigation options for the selected patient.
Invoices
Hover over any result in the Universal Search preview pane to navigate to a patient's invoice, account ledger, or click the three-dot menu to print the invoice without needing to navigate elsewhere.
Frequently asked questions
My expected result is far down the list—is something broken?
First check which tab you're searching in. The All tab returns matches across every entity type—patients, accounts, invoices, documents, pages—so a specific record can get buried under a longer list. If you're looking for a patient or account, search from the dedicated Patient or Account tab instead of All. If you're already in the right tab, haven't misspelled your search term, and don't have a filter or sort order applied that would push your result down, contact Instinct Support so we can look into it.
Search results seem slow or aren’t loading. Is something broken?
If search results are consistently slow or not appearing, please submit a support ticket so our team can investigate. Note that a record edited very recently may take a few minutes to appear in search results—that’s expected behavior. Anything beyond a few minutes, or issues affecting multiple users, should be reported to Instinct Support.
Can I turn Universal Search off?
As of September 2nd, 2026, Universal Search is on by default for all users. If you'd like to share feedback about the Universal Search feature, in the in-app chat, select Ask a Question → Submit a Ticket → New Feature Idea. All feedback is submitted to the Product and Engineering teams.
Still need help?
Contact support via live chat or email [email protected]