Patient record alerts: what should be visible before you start
Patient record alerts are short notices at the very top that the team sees before attending the patient: that they have an allergy, that they are a minor and who their guardian is, that a document is awaiting signature or that a payment is outstanding. They do not replace the medical record: they warn that there is something to look at.
What a record alert is and what it is not
An alert is a short label carrying a piece of information that must not go unnoticed by whoever receives, books or attends the patient. It works because it is short and always in the same place: you do not need to open the medical record to know there is something to check.
What it is not: a diagnosis or a clinical note. The alert summarises data that is already recorded elsewhere (the medical record, the date of birth, the documents, the invoices) and points back to it. That is why a useful alert meets four conditions:
- Brief. A word and a detail: “Allergy: …”, “Minor · legal guardian: …”.
- With a source. It comes from recorded data, not from a reminder someone wrote one day and nobody reviews.
- Up to date. If the data changes, the alert changes with it.
- For the people who need it. An alert nobody looks at is noise, and so are ten alerts at once.
In Spain, Law 41/2002 on patient autonomy requires in its article 15.1 that the medical record include “the information considered essential for a truthful and up-to-date understanding of the patient's state of health”. An alert that no longer matches the record it comes from confuses more than it helps.
The alerts that must be visible before you start
In the day-to-day running of a clinic, four alerts prevent you from starting something blind. None of them is a clinical decision: they are data that someone on the team needs in front of them in good time.
| Alert | Why it must be visible | Who acts |
|---|---|---|
| Allergy | The professional has it in front of them before starting, without searching the medical record. | The professional |
| Minor | Knowing who the legal guardian is and who is accompanying them today. | Reception and the professional |
| Document awaiting signature | So that nothing starts without the relevant document signed. | Reception, before the patient goes in to the consultation |
| Outstanding payment | To settle it discreetly at the end, with no surprises for the patient. | Whoever takes payment |
What matters is not the exact list, but that these alerts come automatically from the data and sit where people look before starting: the record header and the consultation sheet.
Allergies: one list for the record and the alert
An allergy is entered once, in the medical record, and the alert comes from there. If it is written in two places, the record and a separate alert, sooner or later they will not match: someone corrects one and the other stays as it was.
In Mi Clínica, allergies are part of the patient's general history, together with medication, past history and habits, and they are also the alert in the record header, which the whole team sees. It is a single list: when you change the allergies in the general history, the alert changes with them. Those the patient reports at registration go in by the same route.
This means reception can see the alert when booking an appointment even though, with its default permissions, it has no access to the medical records. And on the consultation sheet, the professional has the patient's alerts next to the medication recorded in their general history.
Minors and documents awaiting signature
These are the two alerts that prevent you from starting without the right person or the right signature.
Minors. In Mi Clínica, when the date of birth is that of a person under 18, registration asks for the name of their legal guardian, and the record shows the minor alert with that name and the relationship (mother, father, legal guardian…). The alert is calculated from the date of birth at registration and every time the patient's details are edited.
The alert does not decide who signs: it is a reminder to check. Who gives consent for a minor is regulated by article 9 of Law 41/2002, which provides for consent by representation, among other cases, “when the minor patient is not intellectually or emotionally able to understand the scope of the intervention”. In that case, it adds, “consent will be given by the minor's legal representative, after hearing the minor's opinion”.
Document awaiting signature. If the patient has a document awaiting signature, the header of their record flags it with the document's name. The practical approach is to resolve it at reception, on the tablet, before they go in to the consultation; we explain how signing works in signing consent forms on a tablet.
Where alerts appear in Mi Clínica
In Mi Clínica, alerts appear in the places where the team works with the patient:
- Record header. Up to three are shown at once, two on mobile, and if there are more, a button expands the rest.
- Consultation sheet. The “Alertas del paciente” (Patient alerts) section repeats them, together with the medication recorded in the general history.
- Appointment detail. The patient's alerts appear next to the appointment details.
- Patient list. Each patient carries their alert labels, and the list can be filtered to show only those who have at least one.
The outstanding payment alert appears in the header, with the amount, when the patient has invoices that are not fully paid. It is visible to whoever has access to invoicing: the healthcare professional, who by default does not invoice, does not have it in their view.
How to keep alerts useful
An alert is worth having as long as the team trusts it. To achieve that:
- One source per alert. The allergy in the medical record; the guardian in the patient's details; the signature in their documents. Correct it at the source, not in the alert.
- Check them when you receive the patient. Reception sorts out its part before the patient goes in: the outstanding document, who is accompanying the minor, the payment left part-paid.
- Do not turn notes into alerts. A patient's internal notes are for administration; clinical matters go in the medical record, not in the notes. We explain who sees each part in who can see the medical record.
- Few, and true. If everything is an alert, nothing is.
Mi Clínica is practice management software: it shows what has been recorded, but it does not diagnose or give health advice. How allergies and the guardian are collected from day one is covered in registering a new patient, and the rest of the features are 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 reception see a patient's allergies?
In Mi Clínica, yes: the allergy alert in the record header is visible to the whole team, even though reception, with its default permissions, has no access to the medical records. They see the alert, not the record.
Do alerts replace the medical record?
No. An alert summarises a piece of data that is recorded elsewhere and points back to it. The full information stays in the patient's medical record, documents or invoices.
Where do I correct an allergy that was entered wrongly?
In the patient's general history. In Mi Clínica the alert in the header comes from that same list, so when you correct it there, the alert changes with it.
Why can't I see the outstanding payment alert on the record?
Because only people with access to invoicing can see it, and in Mi Clínica the healthcare professional does not invoice by default. By default, “Recepción” (Reception), “Administración” (Administration) and “Dirección” (Management) can see it.