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Reminders for unsigned/unlocked notes

Answered

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40 comments

  • Gillian

    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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  • Amy Koziarski, LISW, LLC

    Gillian,

    I have used the appointment status report - however, it can become quite tedious.  it would be utterly beneficial to have a “locked note” symbol on the actual session to avoid going back and forth to determine what ones are locked and what ones are incomplete.  

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  • Jessica Parker

    Just want to say that I agree with the suggestions above! It would be wonderful to know if notes are locked "at a glance" on the calendar.

    Thanks for considering this suggestion!

     

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  • Randi Corrigan

    Could I add to this question: Do we have to lock progress notes? 

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  • Jennifer Wuest

    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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  • Gillian

    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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  • Ashley R. Gunn

    An "unlocked documents" report was noted above; can you tell me how to access that? Is that the same as the earlier suggestion to use the appointment status report? 

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  • Gillian

    Hi Ashley, yes, you can visit Reports > Appointment Status and check the "Show Documentation" box to review the note status for all past appointments. 

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  • Diane Franz

    I just searched help to see if this was an option. Please SP, this would be very helpful.

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  • Michelle Shirley

    I vote for this option!! :)

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  • Meredith Dorman

    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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  • Huey Mei Ng

    I would also vote for this to be a feature, please.

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  • Judy Shofner

    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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  • Christina Newell Wyatt

    I had a client cancel and another cancel late. In the reminders button to the side it says I still need to write a note.  Am I missing something?  I shouldn't have to write a note if they cancelled or rescheduled. 

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  • Gillian

    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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  • Brent Henderson

    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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  • Gillian

    Thanks for trying out SimplePractice and for sharing your feedback, Brent. Our Product team is aware of this request, and we're continuing to collect feedback on colors and iconography for the Calendar on our Ideas board. 

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  • Allison Karthaus

    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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  • Gillian

    Thanks, Allison, for your suggestion. 

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  • Rhonda Underwood

    I definitely vote for a lock symbol on the calendar. I hate having to run the report or to go person by person to see who's note I finished in session and who's I didn't.

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  • Gillian

    Hi Rhonda, thanks for your suggestion. You can vote for the idea at simplepractice.uservoice.com. 

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  • Ariele Riboh

    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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  • Ruth

    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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  • Sharon Prager

    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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  • Meriha Mantle

    I too, STRONGLY encourage a lock symbol for notes be added to the calendar. It would be immensely helpful and much more time efficient to have this feature. Thanks in advance for your consideration. 

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  • Ayelette

    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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  • Andrew Cuthbert

    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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  • Ayelette

    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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  • Marian Smith

    I just started using SP and am stuck in this same idea of not having an easy system to see when my notes are complete. Is this being considered. Like another user commented I switched from a competitor and I am really missing this feature.

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  • Gillian

    Hi Marian, you can quickly check the documentation status of all of your notes via Reports > Appointment Status > Include Documentation. Let me know if that helps and if we can be of further assistance.

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