If you're coming from the previous version, the biggest change in Care is this: there is no separate intake form anymore. This article explains why, and what replaces it — the change makes your day-to-day simpler once it clicks.
This describes how CF5 Care works today. A few pieces (especially charts) are still rolling out; where that matters, we say so.
In the old version, an intake form was a middle step — a holding place that mixed together client details, case details, and visit details. Staff (or a data-entry person) filled it in, someone reviewed it, and only when it was submitted did the client, case, and visit records get created. That design came from the paper era, when centers batch-entered stacks of charts.
It also caused real problems: you couldn't send a form to a returning client, and information could live in several disconnected places.
CF5 skips the middle step. Information flows directly to the records it belongs to:
Forms you send map straight to the client, case, or visit — no intake form in between. See Forms vs. Charts.
Charts are the internal templates your staff use to capture information during care (they replace the old intake, and are expanding to cover more). See Forms vs. Charts.
The client record is created the moment an appointment is booked, so you always have one real record to work from — see From Booking to Visit.
You can send forms to anyone, anytime — including returning clients coming back for a third appointment or an ultrasound.
No more "ghost" clients — one clean, consolidated record from first contact, which matters for history and records requests.
Less to learn and maintain — fewer moving parts, and a paperless, client-friendly flow.
You no longer go to an "intake" area to process a client. You work from the appointment and the visit directly — open the visit, and everything the client submitted is right there. If you used the old intake step, see From Booking to Visit for the new routine.
