At SimplePractice, we value the human connection and expertise practitioners bring when providing care. Our Note Taker tool is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and should serve as a partner designed to empower you, enhancing your ability to run a thriving practice.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
- Using Note Taker
- Understanding our approach to Note Taker
- Managing Note Taker in your account
- Gathering consent from your clients
- Navigating Note Taker during a Telehealth appointment
- Editing draft notes
- Navigating Note Taker during an in-person appointment
For more information on Note Taker, see Note Taker FAQs.
Tip: We’ve created an interactive demo for you to explore how Note Taker works. To view this demo, see Note Taker demo. If you'd like to register and attend a live Q&A with one of our Customer Success Specialists, see Note Taker Q&A live class.
Using Note Taker
Our team is actively working on building our first integrated AI driven tool called Note Taker. With the Note Taker tool’s help, you can save time on your documentation process and focus more on your clients during sessions instead of typing or writing notes by hand.
This tool transcribes the audio from appointments, and the full transcript is available within minutes of the session ending. The session recording is deleted as soon as the full transcript is available.
A draft progress note is then generated based on the transcript and the client’s previous progress note, which you’ll be required to carefully review and edit before saving the progress note to the client’s profile to make sure it aligns with your clinical expertise.
Important: You are in control, and you and your clients have the right to opt in or out of the use of AI tools for care at any time. For more information, see What if my client or I want to opt out of Note Taker?
Understanding our approach to Note Taker
Our Note Taker feature is HIPAA compliant and follows our Security & Privacy policies. SimplePractice has also been certified through HITRUST by a third-party assessor that verifies the strictest level of HIPAA and security compliance.
We’re deeply invested in the security and confidentiality of patient data. Protected Health Information (PHI) will never be sold and is always safeguarded in alignment with HIPAA regulations and our comprehensive privacy policy.
In alignment with our Security & Privacy policies, we put the following controls in place to ensure the protection of your clients’ sensitive data when using Note Taker:
- As with all data in your clients’ charts, the transcript and notes are safeguarded with comprehensive security measures
- The Note Taker tool complies with the strict standards set by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Managing Note Taker in your account
Account Owners can manage Note Taker for their account and for each clinician if in a group practice. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Practice > Plan info
Important: SimplePractice is committed to ethical AI that keeps you in control. You can access the Addendum to SimplePractice Terms of Service for Add-on AI Products linked within the Note Taker add-on section of the Plan info page. For more information, see SimplePractice BAA, Terms of Service, and Trust & Security information and Note Taker FAQs.
- Click Manage access next to Note Taker
- Next to each clinician, you can toggle on or off
- Click Save
When toggled on, Record audio will be visible in the tool bar for the clinician during their Telehealth appointments.
Each clinician will have the ability to start and stop recording any time during their Telehealth appointment. For more information, see Navigating Note Taker during a Telehealth appointment.
Gathering consent from your clients
If you'd like to gather consent from your clients for audio recording or are required to by your state, you can send them the Consent to Record Audio form to read and sign.
Important: It’s your practice’s responsibility to review the Consent to Record Audio form and update it according to your practice policies, along with the legal requirements of your state. If you have any questions, we recommend consulting the relevant regulatory and/ or licensing body.
To gather consent from your clients, you can send them the Consent to Record Audio form to read and sign.
First, update the Consent to Record Audio form in your SimplePractice account with your practice’s information. To do this:
- Navigate to Settings > Documentation > Shareable documents
- Under Consent forms, click Edit next to Consent to Record Audio
- Update and edit the information as needed
- Click Save
To gather consent, you can send this form to each client it’s applicable for. To do this:
- Navigate to the client’s Overview page
- In the upper right corner, click Share
- Under Consent Documents, check the box next to Consent to Record Audio
- Click Continue to Email > Continue to Review > Share & Send Now
You can check back in the client’s Files tab to see if the client has completed the document. Once it’s complete, you can begin using Note Taker for the client’s Telehealth sessions.
For more information, see:
- Managing consent forms and intake documents
- Sharing a form, document, or uploaded file with a client or contact
Navigating Note Taker during a Telehealth appointment
Important: Note Taker is currently being rolled out to customers.
During all Telehealth sessions, you’ll see the option to Record audio in the bottom tool bar. To begin recording, click Record audio.
You can click Pause in the bottom tool bar to pause the audio recording at any time.
Click Resume to continue recording the audio of the appointment.
Note: The Note Taker tool can be used for all types of Telehealth appointments: one-on-one, couples, and group appointments. If you’re using the Telehealth by SimplePractice mobile app, see What does Note Taker look like when using the Telehealth by SimplePractice mobile app?
Editing draft notes
Once the Telehealth session is complete, the Note Taker tool will transcribe the audio of the recording within minutes and summarize the session in a draft note for the appointment.
When the draft note is available, it’ll automatically populate in a Simple Progress Note for the appointment.
If you were already on the appointment page when the draft note became available, a modal will appear that says Load Note Taker’s draft into progress note? Click Load draft to populate the draft note.
Alternatively, you can click Don’t load draft to access the draft note later. You can access the draft note later—either within 7 days of the appointment or until you sign and lock it—by clicking Note Taker in the upper right corner of the appointment page.
If you already typed a progress note for the appointment when the draft note became available, a modal will appear that says Override the progress note you started? Click Don’t load draft to keep your typed progress note if you prefer to access the draft note later.
You can access the draft note later—either within 7 days of the appointment or until you sign and lock it—by clicking Note Taker in the upper right corner of the appointment page.
Alternatively, you can click Load draft to override your typed progress note. If you select Load draft, your typed progress note will be lost.
Review and edit the draft note to make sure it's accurate and aligned with your clinical expertise. To save the note and to acknowledge you reviewed and edited it, click I reviewed it.
To view the full appointment transcript:
- Navigate to appointment page
- Click Note Taker
- Scroll to the bottom of the Draft note slide out
- Click View appointment transcript
Important: Both the draft note and appointment transcript are only viewable 7 days after the appointment has ended or until the note has been signed and locked, whichever happens first. For more information, see Will the recording and transcription of the appointment be deleted?
To give our team feedback on the draft note:
- Click View note > How’s this note?
- Give your satisfaction rate from 1-5 and why you chose the rating
- Click Submit
Important: It’s your practice’s responsibility to know the legal requirements of your state when recording the audio from a Telehealth appointment. If you have any questions, we recommend consulting the relevant licensing and/or governing body.
Navigating Note Taker during an in-person appointment
You can use a mobile device or tablet to record audio during in-person sessions.
In this section, we’ll cover:
Tip: We’ve created an interactive demo for you to explore how Note Taker works on iOS and Android. To view this demo, see Note Taker demo on iOS and Android.
In-person Note Taker on iOS
During in-person sessions, you can use your Apple device to record the audio. To do this:
-
Download the new SimplePractice for Clinicians mobile app
- To access it in the Apple App Store, see SimplePractice Clinician App
- For more information, see Downloading the SimplePractice mobile app on iOS
- Open the app
- Select the appointment
-
Tap Record with Note Taker
- This button will appear before the appointment time and during the appointment duration
- To pause the recording, tap the pause button
- To cancel the recording, tap Cancel in the upper left corner
- To continue recording, tap Resume
You can pause and resume recording as many times as you need to during an in-person session. Once the session is complete and/or you want to end the recording, tap Done.
Keep the app open to make sure the recording has been saved. Then, Note Taker will transcribe the audio of the recording and summarize the session in a draft note.
Note: Please keep the appointment page open so that the app has time to complete the audio recording and so that it saves successfully.
Once the draft note is available, you’ll receive a push notification that it’s ready for review. This notification will only appear if you have mobile app push notifications toggled on.
The draft note will automatically appear in a Simple Progress Note for the client’s appointment.
You can also tap Draft note within 7 days of the appointment or before it's locked and signed to view the draft note. You can choose to copy the entire draft note or parts of it by tapping Copy all or Copy and pasting it back into the appointment note.
Before saving the note to the client’s appointment, review its contents to make sure it aligns with your professional expertise and style. If you try to save the draft note without changes, you’ll be required to acknowledge that you’ve reviewed it. This modal will appear, and you can tap I reviewed it to save the note.
Note: To view the full appointment transcript or give feedback about the generated draft note, navigate to the draft note on the SimplePractice web app.
To make any edits to the note, tap the pencil icon in the upper right corner. Once you’re ready to save the note, you can sign and lock it by tapping Sign Note > Sign & Lock.
In-person Note Taker on Android
During in-person sessions, you can use your Android device to record the audio. To do this:
-
Download the SimplePractice mobile app
- If you already have the SimplePractice mobile app downloaded, make sure that it’s the latest version
- For more information, see Downloading the SimplePractice mobile app on Android
- Open the SimplePractice mobile app
- Select the appointment
- Tap Record with Note Taker
- This button will appear at the beginning of the appointment time and during its duration
- To pause the recording, tap the pause button
- To cancel the recording, tap the back arrow in the upper left corner
- To continue recording, tap Resume
You can pause and resume recording as many times as you need to during an in-person session. Once the session is complete and/or you want to end the recording, tap Done.
The Note Taker tool will transcribe the audio of the recording within minutes and summarize the session in a draft note.
Once the draft note is available, you’ll receive a push notification that it’s ready for review. This notification will only appear if you have mobile app push notifications toggled on.
The draft note will automatically appear in a Simple Progress Note for the client’s appointment.
You can also tap Draft note within 7 days of the appointment or before it's locked and signed to view the draft note. You can choose to copy the entire draft note or parts of it by tapping Copy all or Copy and pasting it back into the appointment note.
Before saving the note to the client’s appointment, review its contents to make sure it aligns with your professional expertise and style. If you try to save the draft note without changes, you’ll be required to acknowledge that you’ve reviewed it. This modal will appear, and you can tap I reviewed it to save the note.
Note: To view the full appointment transcript or give feedback about the generated draft note, navigate to the draft note on the SimplePractice web app.
To make any edits to the note, tap the pencil icon in the upper right corner. Once you’re ready to save the note, you can sign and lock it by tapping Sign Note > Sign & Lock.