Document templates for clinics: how to organise them
Document templates for clinics make every consent form, authorisation, report or prescription come out the same way and with the right details, without copying them by hand. A good template fixes the text the clinic decides on and leaves blanks for the patient, the professional and the date. The legal text of each document is supplied by the clinic.
What a template is and what it is not
A template is the starting text of a document the clinic uses many times, with blanks where the details that change from one patient to the next go. It is not the document: the document is what comes out of it for a specific person, on a specific day, and what that person reads and signs.
The difference matters for a practical reason. If the template changes tomorrow because your adviser has corrected a sentence, the documents your patients have already signed must keep saying what they said when they were signed. A template system works if it keeps those two things properly apart: the model, which evolves, and each document, which stays as it was delivered.
Nor is it a legal model that works for any clinic. What a consent form must say depends on the treatment, its risks and how you work, and no generic template solves that.
Which documents are worth having as templates
Any document that repeats with the same structure and changes only in the patient's details or in what the professional writes is worth having as a template. In a private clinic, for example, these:
| Document | What it is for | Who usually prepares it |
|---|---|---|
| Informed consent | For the patient to accept a treatment after being informed | Reception or the professional, with the text set by the clinic |
| Data protection | To inform the patient how their data is processed | Reception, at registration |
| Authorisation | Clinical photographs, image use and other specific authorisations | Reception or the professional |
| Questionnaire | To collect information before the first visit | Reception |
| Report, prescription or treatment | Clinical documents in the professional's name | The professional, with their own user account |
In Mi Clínica, templates are classified into those types: consent, authorisation, data protection, questionnaire, report, prescription, treatment and other. The report, prescription and treatment follow a rule of their own: clinical content does not appear by itself; the report, prescription or plan is prepared by its professional with their own user account.
Placeholders: what fills itself in
A placeholder is a marker within the text that the software replaces with information it already has. That way the patient's name, their ID number (DNI) or the professional's registration number are not typed into every document, and copying errors do not creep in.
In Mi Clínica, documents fill themselves in with the patient's, the clinic's and the professional's details, including the professional's registration number. Placeholders are written in curly brackets, with their Spanish names as they appear in the software, and these are the ones a template understands:
- Patient: {paciente}, {dni}, {fecha_nacimiento}, {edad}, {direccion}, {telefono} and {email}.
- Professional: {profesional}, {colegiado} and {especialidad}.
- Clinic: {clinica}, {razon_social}, {nif_clinica}, {direccion_clinica}, {telefono_clinica} and {email_clinica}.
- Others: {tratamiento}, {fecha} and {texto}, which is what the professional writes in that document.
The details come from the patient's, the clinic's and the professional's records: they are not typed into each document. If a detail is missing, the document does not invent it: a line, “________”, appears so that it is visible that something is missing and can be completed before signing. That is why it is worth having the patient's file and each professional's file complete before you start producing documents.
The clinic supplies the legal text
The content of a consent form is not decided by the software but by the clinic. Ley 41/2002 (Spain's patient autonomy law) requires written consent to contain “sufficient information about the procedure to be applied and its risks” (quotations from Spanish legislation in this article are our own translation, not an official text), and what is sufficient for each treatment is a clinical and legal decision. We explain what it usually includes in what an informed consent form should include.
Mi Clínica has standard templates to get started, but they are a starting point to adapt, not a legal model reviewed for your clinic: the final legal text of each document is supplied by the clinic with its own templates. Your adviser should review the texts and, from there, they should be loaded as your own templates.
One detail that avoids duplicates: to consent forms made with the standard templates the software adds a paragraph in which the patient declares having been informed; it does not add it to a clinic's own template, because that brings its own legal text and adding two declarations could contradict what the patient signs.
Versions: changing the template without touching what is signed
Changing a template must not change any document already delivered. That takes two things: each document stores its own text, and the template carries a version number.
In Mi Clínica, changing a template's text or name raises its version, and the document stores the already-filled text at the moment it is created, together with the version of the template that was used. While it is a draft it can be edited and is rebuilt with today's details; when it leaves draft status the document is frozen and can no longer be deleted or changed. If something in a signed document needs correcting, a new version is made and the previous one is kept.
The document comes out as a PDF with the clinic's header, its logo if you have uploaded one, the patient's and the professional's details and, when signed, the evidence of the signature. It is signed on the tablet or remotely; how signing by link works is explained in signing a consent form remotely, and signing in the consulting room in signing consent forms on a tablet.
Typical mistakes with templates
These mistakes do not depend on the software but on how templates are maintained:
- A single consent template for everything. Each treatment has its own risks and information; a generic text is rarely enough.
- Loose copies on each professional's computer. If there are three versions of the same consent form, nobody knows which is the right one. Better to have a single clinic library.
- Incomplete details in the file. If the ID number or registration number is missing, the document comes out with blank spaces and has to be corrected before signing.
- Editing the document instead of the template. If a sentence is wrong, correct it in the template so it is not repeated for the next patient.
- Taking the standard text as final. It is fine for getting started, but the legal text has to be validated by the clinic.
If you want to see how templates fit with the rest of the documents and signing, it is summarised on the Mi Clínica page (in Spanish).
Sources consulted
Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a consent template downloaded from the internet?
You can use it as a draft, but not as the final text. What a consent form must explain depends on the treatment and its risks, so your adviser should review it and adapt it to your clinic before you load it as a template.
If I change a template, do documents that are already signed change?
They should not. In Mi Clínica each document stores its own text when created and is frozen when it leaves draft status; changing the template raises its version and only affects drafts and documents created afterwards.
What happens if a patient detail is missing from the file?
The document does not invent it: in Mi Clínica the blank appears as a line (“________”) so that it is visible that something is missing. It is best to complete the file before sending it for signature: while it is a draft, it is rebuilt with today's details.
Are Mi Clínica's standard templates a valid legal model?
No. They are a starting point to begin working. The final legal text of each document is supplied by the clinic with its own templates.