Use Custom Flags for Scheduling, Alerts, and Reporting

When a patient has an unusual scheduling need, or a diagnosis or other issue that requires attention, you can add a patient flag to their record. You can also flag family accounts that need to speak to the billing office and customize report output using flags. Custom status flags help your practice handle unique needs.

Draft Documentation: This article describes functionality in PCC 10.4, coming to pediatric practices in late 2025.

Contents

1 Assign Flags to a Patient or a Family
2 Review Your Practice’s Flags
3 Edit Your Practice’s Status Flags
4 Account and Patient Status Flags Behaviors Reference
- 4.1 Account Flags Behaviors
- 4.2 Patient Flags Behaviors
5 Other Ways to Use Status Flags

Assign Flags to a Patient or a Family

You can add a flag to a patient or a home or billing account wherever you edit demographics.

For example, your practice can update flags on the Patient Check-In screen, in the Demographics section of the patient’s chart, or in the Payments tool while you work on a billing issue.

Review Your Practice’s Flags

When you want to review and customize your practice’s flags, open the Tables tool in the Configuration menu.

The Tables tool includes Account Flags and Patient Flags tables.

For each flag, you can see the names, sort order priority, and whether or not the flag has certain effects on PCC EHR behavior, such as scheduling, preventing bills from being generated, and more.

Edit Your Practice’s Status Flags

Double-click on a flag to edit it, or click “Clone” or “Add” to create a new flag. To learn more about using the Tables tool, read Edit Your Practice’s Configuration Tables.

Caution: As with every configuration table, remember that when you make changes you are changing the flag wherever it appears in your system. Do not delete, write over, or change the name of a flag. Instead, clone a flag or create a new one.

When you edit or enter details for a status flag, you can indicate the name and short name that will appear in PCC EHR. The optional priority number controls how the status flag will sort in relation to other flags when displayed on a patient or account record.

In the Behaviors section, you can configure PCC EHR behaviors for patients or families who have the status flag. See the reference below for more details.

Account and Patient Status Flags Behaviors Reference

In addition to clinical alerts and reporting, status flags have built in behavior settings controlled by the questions for each flag.

Account Flags Behaviors

Prevent scheduling patients when their home or billing account has this flag

This behavior setting includes a drop-down menu with three options. When a user attempts to schedule a patient whose billing or home account has a flag with “Yes – Prevent All Scheduling” selected, PCC EHR’s Appointment Book will display a warning message along with the flag(s) that prevented scheduling. The “Save” button for the appointment will be disabled.

If “Yes – Prevent Only Portal Scheduling” is selected, patients with that flag can be scheduled through the Appointment Book, but not through patient portal self-scheduling. In patient portal the patient will be unselectable and marked “Please Call to Schedule”.

Hold bills for accounts with this flag

When an account has a flag with the “Hold bills…” option set to “Yes”, the Bills tool will ignore the account and not prepare, generate, or submit personal statements for them. Your practice can still generate a personal statement by hand in the Payments tool.

Hide this flag name on printed visit forms, PDF form letters, and legacy form letters

While rarely used, PCC EHR includes the ability to have flags appear on form letters. If an account flag has the “Hide this flag…” option set to “Yes”, then this flag will not appear on that output.

Exclude from the Practice Vitals Dashboard

If an account’s data should not be included in the calculations used in the Practice Vitals Dashboard, your practice can add a flag to that account that has the “Exclude from…” behavior set to “No”.

Patient Flags Behaviors

Prevent scheduling patients with this flag

When a user attempts to schedule a patient who has a flag with “Yes – Prevent All Scheduling” selected, PCC EHR’s Appointment Book will display a warning message along with the flag(s) that prevented scheduling. The “Save” button for the appointment will be disabled.

Hide this flag name on printed visit forms, PDF form letters, and legacy form letters

Patients assigned this flag are inactive

As described on the screen, patients with an “inactive” flag will not appear in CHADIS, will not have their data included in the Practice Vitals Dashboard, and will not appear on a default search in PCC EHR. You can optionally display them in search results.

Other Ways to Use Status Flags

In addition to the automatic behaviors described above, practices use status flags in the following ways.

Show an Alert

Your practice can create a Clinical Alert based on an account or patient flag. The alert can appear when a chart is opened or saved, when scheduling, during patient check-in, or when posting charges. The alert can appear for every patient or account with a selected flag, or be limited based on other criteria. Read Clinical Alerts to learn more.

Customize a Report

Your practice can customize most reports in the PCC EHR Report Library so that they include or exclude patients or accounts by status flags. Read Create a Custom Report to learn more.

Control Broadcast Messaging

When sending a broadcast message out to a group of patients or families, you can include or exclude patients or accounts by status flags. Read Send Broadcast Messages to Patients and Families to learn more.