Consent forms awaiting signature: make sure none slips through
Keeping track of consent forms awaiting signature means knowing, before each appointment, which documents each patient is missing and which were created but remain unsigned. A practical way is a daily list with three groups: documents not yet signed, those missing for upcoming appointments and those that have been stuck for too long.
Why an unsigned consent form is a problem
An unsigned consent form is a problem because consent has to be in place before the procedure, not after. Spanish Law 41/2002 (the patient autonomy law) says that “any action in the field of a patient's health requires the free and voluntary consent of the person concerned, once, having received the information provided for in article 4, they have weighed up the options of their case”.
The general rule is verbal consent, but the same law requires it to be given in writing for surgery, for invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and, in general, for the application of procedures that involve risks or drawbacks with a notable and foreseeable negative impact on the patient's health. And it adds that written consent “will be necessary for each of the actions specified in the previous point”. Which of your clinic's treatments fall into that group is a clinical and legal decision for the clinic.
Besides the missing document, there is the one left half-done: created and unsigned, sent by a link the patient never opened, or prepared for the treatment of another day. That is why pending items are tracked with a list, not with reception's memory.
Three types of pending item worth separating
Not all pending items are equal, and mixing them makes the important ones get lost. It is worth separating three groups:
| Type | What it is | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending signature | The document exists, but the patient has not signed it yet | Sign it in the consulting room or send the link |
| Missing | The patient has an upcoming appointment with a treatment that requires consent and there is no document | Create it and sign it before the appointment |
| Stuck | A forgotten draft, a link nobody signs or a signed document without its evidence | Review it: complete, resend or cancel |
In Mi Clínica the “Documentos” (Documents) section separates, among others, these groups: “Pendientes de firma” (Pending signature: consent forms and documents created and still unsigned), “Consentimientos faltantes” (Missing consent forms: upcoming appointments whose treatment requires consent and patients without their data protection (GDPR) form) and “Requieren revisión” (Need review: signed with no evidence available, a draft older than 7 days or pending for more than 30). The missing ones look at appointments in the next 30 days.
Let each treatment say which documents it requires
One way to make sure no document is missing is for the treatment itself to say which ones it requires, instead of depending on someone remembering. If a treatment requires its consent form and the photo authorisation, that is decided once, in the catalogue, and not at every appointment.
In Mi Clínica each treatment in the catalogue has a section “Documentos que exige este tratamiento” (Documents this treatment requires). When that treatment is given to a patient, with an appointment or with a treatment plan, the documents they do not already have are prepared automatically as drafts: they sit in the patient's “Documentos” tab, ready to be signed on the tablet or sent by link. If one is not needed in that case, it is cancelled, and documents can still be created without a treatment.
Two reasonable limits: a treatment can only require documents that the patient signs (consent forms, data protection, authorisations, questionnaires or others), because reports, prescriptions and plans are prepared by their practitioner; and the software does not duplicate what the patient already has. Which document each treatment requires is decided by the clinic.
The pending list, every day
The pending list works if someone looks at it every day at the same time, for example when opening and the afternoon before tomorrow's appointments. A simple routine:
- When opening: go through the missing items for the day's appointments and prepare them before the patient arrives.
- For the coming days: send the signing link for those that can be signed at home.
- Once a week: review the stuck ones and decide whether to complete, resend or cancel them.
In Mi Clínica, besides the “Documentos” section, the patient list can be filtered by “Firma pendiente” (Signature pending) and “Consentimiento faltante” (Consent missing), and on the patient's record a pending consent form is visible before starting, next to the allergy alerts. From a missing item, the “Crear y firmar” (Create and sign) button prepares that patient's document. What should be visible at the top of the record is explained in alerts on the patient record.
How to close a pending item: sign, resend or cancel
A pending item can only be closed in three ways, and the team should know which applies in each case:
- Sign it in the consulting room. If the patient is in front of you, on the tablet. We explain it in signing consent forms on a tablet.
- Send or resend the link. If the patient is not there, by email or WhatsApp. The document stays “Pendiente de firma” (Pending signature) and moves to “Firmado” (Signed) only when the patient signs. The whole process is in signing a consent form remotely.
- Cancel it. If it is no longer needed. In Mi Clínica a draft or a pending item is cancelled with a reason and nothing is deleted: it stays as cancelled.
What you should not do is let it sit. A draft nobody is going to sign clutters the list and ends up hiding the pending items that matter.
Typical mistakes
Some typical failures with pending documents:
- Reviewing pending items with the patient already in the consulting room. The time is before: when confirming the appointment or the day before.
- Treating a sent link as signed. Sent is not signed; until it moves to “Firmado”, it is still pending.
- One generic consent form for everything. If each treatment requires its own, a generic document does not fill the gap.
- Drafts piling up. If a treatment is no longer going to be done, cancel its documents with a reason.
- Nobody responsible for the list. If it is everyone's task, it is nobody's: assign it to one person on reception.
The summary of documents, templates and signing is 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
Who should review the pending consent forms?
One specific person, normally on reception, at a fixed time: when opening and the day before appointments. If it is everyone's task, it ends up being done by no one.
Does a document sent by link count as signed?
No. As long as the patient has not signed, it remains pending. In Mi Clínica it moves from “Pendiente de firma” (Pending signature) to “Firmado” (Signed) only when the patient signs from their link.
What should I do with a draft that is no longer needed?
Cancel it, with a reason. In Mi Clínica cancelling deletes nothing: the document stays as cancelled and stops appearing as pending.
Does Mi Clínica decide which treatments need consent?
No. The clinic decides: in the catalogue you indicate which documents each treatment requires, and the software prepares them as drafts when that treatment is given to a patient.