Reminders for unsigned/unlocked notes
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I would like to have a reminder (or an icon on the calendar) indicating when a note is unsigned and needs to be signed and locked. I'm hoping SP will add this feature in the future. Does anyone have a workaround for this?
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Hi Kristen, a great way to reveal all of the unsigned or unlocked notes in your account is using the Appointment Status report. You can find it under Insights > Appointment Status. Check the "Show documentation" box to add a column to the report with the note status for every session. Let me know if you have any additional questions about this, or anything else SimplePractice. I'm here to help.
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I do use the unlocked documents report but it would be so simple to have an icon on the schedule that shows either a lock, an unlock or the blank document. Often I am doing my notes in between sessions and it is so annoying to forget to complete and lock the note that I got interrupted and didn't finish. Please add this in!
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Hi Randi, I'd be happy to help with your question. Locking your Progress Notes is equivalent to signing and dating a paper Progress Note. While SimplePractice doesn't require you to lock your notes, we highly recommend locking your notes after completing them to ensure that the note includes your name, credentials, and the timestamp of when the note was finalized.
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I think it would be very helpful for the calendar to change color or a "lock" symbol to appear when the note has been locked. As stated above, the report is helpful, but not efficient. Having the information appear on the calendar in the form of lock or change of color would make my life so much easier!
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I have been using Simple Practice for a long time, but had never realized I was forgetting the Lock button for notes. Is there a way to Lock them as of the date they were created? If not, can I lock them all now with a note in the file stating this should have been done at the time notes were created? I think it will be strange if I start locking all my notes from the very beginning and it looks like I did them all a year after they were created which isn't the case at all???
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Hi Judy, happy to help. Many of our customers in the same situation choose to add a Chart Note explaining why notes were all locked on a certain date. We are not legal entities and as such you would want to check with the regulatory bodies in your state for your specific practice needs.
Christina, some of our customers choose to add a note for cancelled/late cancelled sessions documenting the cancellation reason. If you'd prefer to remove the reminders for these cancelled sessions, you can click the X button next to the reminder to permanently dismiss it. - Gillian
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Gillian,
As a potential new user, I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is that you implore your team to add a feature that lets the clinician tell at first glance, when looking at the calendar, or at least after ONE CLICK not several clicks, whether a note has been locked or not. This is a major flaw of your software, a real headache, and should be an easy fix.
I was formerly with one of your competitors, where it was much easier to tell if a note was a "draft" or signed note, and this design flaw makes me consider returning to that software.
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I think it would be very helpful if at the end of the note where you have to click save before you lock the note there were 2 buttons. One that says "save and lock" and another that says "save unlocked". That way it's just one click instead of two. Keeping track of this for a group practice is tedious and many clinicians forget the second step.
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I would like to echo the potential benefit of receiving a notification at the end of the day for notes that have not been locked. Especially as a group practice owner I would benefit from this. I do use the appointment status report and try to so so weekly but it would also be nice if it was a feature that could alert the individual clinician as well as that would eliminate one more thing from my to do list!
Thanks for all your ongoing responsiveness and hard work!
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Hi Ariele - Thank you for your feedback and kind words. To reiterate Gillian's point, please comment on and upvote this idea on our Ideas and Suggestions board.
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I would love for this to be an option in the drop down menu where appointments/mental status and chart notes etc are. Can we have a drop down to sort missing progress notes please? I am pretty sure that would be easy to sort in each client rather than go through the entire practice. I would love to know when I am discharging a client or if I have an issue with a client if perhaps I missed a note somewhere in the chart before closing it out.
I use the psychotherapy note for all my thoughts and concepts etc but sometimes I forget to go back and do the progress note!! Bad me yes! But it would help so much to be able to go back and clarify
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Hi all,
Following up on Ruth's comment above, I encourage you to add your ideas to our Ideas and Suggestions board. Posting on this board means that members of our Product Team, as well as all members of our Community, have transparent access to review your suggestion. This board is one of our most important resources for understanding which features will have the most value for our community.
If you're curious, here's more information about how a customer idea can become a SimplePractice feature: Customer feedback: How a customer idea can become a feature in SimplePractice.
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Echoing above comments. I have been a user for months (switched from another EHR), and I just realized my notes were not locked after it being much more clear and seamless on every other EHR I've used. I believe this is an incredibly important feature to add.
I personally would like to have two options at the bottom SAVE or SAVE AND SIGN (or some version of that).
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Hi Andrew,
When you save a note, there will be a link to Lock that note above the note.
You can review which of your sessions have unlocked notes by going to Reports > Appointment Status Report > selecting Include Documentation > filtering the note status by Unlocked.
If you have ideas for additional note features, I invite you to add those to our Ideas & Suggestions Board.
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