A new practice opens Settings → Patients to an empty list and has to decide what to track before it has seen a single patient. Starter fields let you begin with a sensible set and trim it.
What each set adds
- Referral tracking: Referral source (a pick list: Google search, Friend or family, Another provider, Social media, Walk-by, Other), Referred by and First contact date.
- Insurance: Insurance carrier, Member ID, Group number, Coverage verified (a date) and Visits authorized (a number).
- Safety flags: yes/no fields for On blood thinners, Pregnant or possibly pregnant, Pacemaker or implanted device and Needle-sensitive, plus an Allergies text box.
- Scheduling preferences: Preferred provider, Preferred visit times (early morning through weekends, pick any), Language and Accessibility needs.
- Background: Occupation, Conditions of interest (pick any) and Primary care physician.
Each row in the menu shows its description and an Add button. Once every field in a set is on your list, the button reads Added and stops responding.
They are yours afterwards
A set is a copy, not a link. Rename a field, change its type, edit the options or delete it, and nothing is pulled back. Applying a set skips any field whose label you already have, ignoring capitals, so adding Insurance after you hand-made Member ID only adds the rest. Practices are limited to 30 patient fields, so a set that would go past it adds only what fits.
Where the fields show up
Every field appears on the patient's page, filled in with Edit details, and becomes a column in the Patients table that is hidden until you turn it on in the Columns menu. Like the built-in columns, it can be sorted and filtered. Patient fields are for staff only; patients don't see them in the portal. See Patient fields for field types and how they work.