Using Intake Summaries

Intake Summaries are AI-generated summaries that help you quickly review a new client’s intake information. They bring together details from the prescreener, intake forms, demographics, and scored measures in one place.

This can help you identify key details such as presenting concerns, clinical indicators, and assessment results, so you can review intake documents more efficiently before the first appointment.

Note: Intake Summaries are part of Care Aide. For more information, see Introducing Care Aide.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• Collecting intake information
• Obtaining client consent
• Generating and viewing the Intake Summary
• Understanding summary availability and updates
• FAQs

Important: If your state requires specific consent for AI use in client care, you can customize the Consent for Use of AI Tools with De-Identified Transcript Retention form. For more information, see Preparing to use Care Aide.

Collecting intake information

Intake Summaries are generated based on information your client submits during the intake process. This may include:

• A prescreener from an online appointment request or contact form
• Intake forms or questionnaires
• Scored measures (such as GAD-7 or PHQ-9)

As your client completes each of these steps, more information becomes available for the summary.

Obtaining client consent

Before generating an intake summary for a client, you'll need to obtain your client's consent to use AI in the delivery of their care. 

Obtaining consent through the prescreener

For users of our AI features, clients can provide consent through the optional AI consent question included in the prescreener. 

Once the client provides consent sufficient intake information becomes available, the Intake Summary can be generated.

The AI consent question in the prescreener is turned off by default. To enable and customize the AI consent question:

1. Navigate to Settings > Scheduling and inquiries > Prescreener
2. Scroll down to the Client preferences section
3. Next to Do you consent to the use of AI in the delivery of your care?, check the boxes to display the question on the contact form and/or booking widget

While the AI consent question and response options can't be modified, you can customize the helper text clients see beneath the question. Helper text can provide additional context about how AI is used in your practice, so clients can make an informed decision before responding.

To edit the helper text: 

1. Select the pencil icon next to Do you consent to the use of AI in the delivery of your care?

2. Customize the helper text in the field below the question

3. Click Save

To learn more about customizing prescreener questions, see Editing and managing prescreener questions.

Obtaining consent through intake documents

You can also include the Consent for Use of AI Tools with De-Identified Transcript Retention form when sharing intake documents with a client. 

Once the client signs the AI consent form and sufficient intake information is available, the Intake Summary will generate automatically

Note: If your state or specialty requires more specific disclosures or consent, you can update the consent form to include the relevant information.

When sharing intake documents for the first time, you'll see a reminder to review and customize this form for your practice.

Important: To support automatic generation of Intake Summaries, keep the default title of the Consent for Use of AI Tools with De-Identified Transcript Retention unchanged. If the form is renamed, Intake Summaries won't generate automatically. You can still generate the first Intake Summary manually from the client's Overview page by clicking Generate summary.

Obtaining consent outside of SimplePractice

If consent was obtained outside of SimplePractice, you can generate the first Intake Summary from the client's Overview page by clicking Generate summary.

Generating and viewing the Intake Summary

Depending on the available information, the summary may include the following:

• Client overview: Reason for visit, preferences, and background
• Clinical alerts: Important indicators such as high assessment scores or risk factors
• Questionnaires: Key responses and reported concerns
• Scored measures: Results from tools like GAD-7 or PHQ-9
• Demographics: Relevant background, medications, or administrative details
• Consent forms: Status of completed consent forms

Important: AI-generated summaries may be incomplete or miss context. We recommend reviewing summaries carefully, along with the associated forms completed by your clients, to confirm accuracy. To learn more, see Reviewing AI-generated content.

If certain documents aren’t completed, the corresponding sections may not appear.

You can view the Intake Summary in the following areas:

• Inquiries page: Select a client inquiry to view the summary in the side panel

• Client Overview page: View the summary at the top of the client’s record

• Appointment flyout: Access the summary from the calendar once a client’s first appointment has been scheduled

Understanding summary availability and updates

If there isn’t enough intake information available, a summary won’t be generated. This can happen if the client hasn’t completed a prescreener or intake forms, or the responses provided don’t include enough detail. In this case, the summary section will indicate that there isn’t enough information.

Note: To request additional information from a client, you can send a reminder for any pending intake forms.

Once the client submits additional information, the summary will generate automatically. It'll continue to update as more intake documents are completed, so you’re always seeing the most current information.

To provide feedback on a summary, select How was this summary? to rate it and optionally share written feedback.

FAQs

• Can I remove an Intake Summary for a client?
• Can I turn the Intake Summary feature off?

Can I remove an Intake Summary for a client?

You can remove a summary from a client’s Overview page. To do this:

1. Click the three dots > Remove summary

2. Enter your feedback, then click Remove summary

Note: Once removed, a new summary won’t be generated for that client.

Can I turn the Intake Summary feature off?

There isn’t a setting to disable Intake Summaries, but you can remove the summary for a specific client.