Case Management is for ongoing client care that spans more than one interaction. Use it when staff need to coordinate follow-up, track goals or plans, review history, and keep work connected over time.
For who the person is (contact details, household, timeline), start with Client Management Overview. For what happened on a single day in the office, see Visits Overview.
A case and a visit are related, but they are not the same thing.
• A case is the longer story — the umbrella for one ongoing concern. In pregnancy-center care, that is usually one pregnancy (with its own Last Menstrual Period (LMP) and related dates) or one pregnancy-related issue you are following over time.
• A visit is one encounter on a specific day when the client is present and you Start Visit. Charts, that day's notes, and that day's tests live on the visit.
Think of the case as the folder for one continuous concern, and each visit as a page inside that folder. Multiple visits can (and usually should) belong to the same case.
Rule of thumb: The case holds the ongoing story (LMP, due date, outcome, follow-up). Each visit holds what happened that day.
Many centers create a brand-new case every time someone walks in. That works mechanically, but it makes records harder to use:
• History for the same pregnancy gets split across many thin cases.
• Follow-up visits no longer line up under one LMP or outcome story.
• Staff have to open several cases to answer "where are we with this client?"
Better pattern: open a case when the concern begins, then attach multiple visits to that same case as care continues. Start a new case when the client has a new concern (for example a later pregnancy with a different LMP, or a separate issue that should not mix with the prior case).
When the client already has a case on file, Start Visit asks which case this visit belongs to (or lets you start a new one). Use that moment to keep the right visits under the right umbrella.
More detail: From Booking to Visit: How Records Flow · Visits Overview · The Visit Board
Use a case when the work has continuity, such as:
• A client needs multiple follow-up steps.
• Staff need to coordinate care across appointments or services.
• There are goals, plans, referrals, or tasks to track.
• A supervisor or another staff member needs to review progress.
• Reporting should show ongoing care rather than a single visit.
• Client details
• Visits and services
• Notes, tasks, calls, and attachments
• Referrals or follow-up actions
• Staff ownership, status, and important dates
• Vitals recorded during a linked visit, shown as a "Vitals Recorded" entry on the case timeline
• Ultrasound, STI test, and pregnancy test results recorded during a linked visit, shown as summary chips nested inside that visit's Visit card on the case timeline
• Appointments linked to the case through a visit, shown as Appointment Scheduled, Rescheduled, or Cancelled entries on the case timeline
• Health history recorded for the client, shown as a "Health History" entry on the case timeline. See Client Records and History for what the entry includes.
When a pregnancy center (CPC) client has an open case, the top of their activity timeline shows a sticky Active case rail: a compact bar with the case number, initial assessment status, follow-up due date, and pregnancy outcome (or "In progress" while the case is still open). Click the rail to jump straight to the case. It only appears when the client has a case that is currently active.
Key dates from a case automatically show up as milestone entries on the timeline for both the case itself and the client it belongs to. This gives staff and reviewers a quick picture of where a case stands without opening every tab. Milestones render as compact one-line entries rather than full activity cards, for example "Case #73 - Follow-up Due." Milestones include:
• Case Initiated — when the case was opened
• Last Menstrual Period — the recorded LMP date
• Follow-up Due — the case's follow-up date
• Estimated Due Date — calculated from a sonogram due date if one is recorded, otherwise a physician-estimated (PT) due date, otherwise 280 days from the LMP
• Pregnancy Outcome — shown when an outcome has been recorded, with the outcome noted alongside the entry
• Birth — the recorded birth date
• Case Closed — when the case was closed out
Only milestones that have a date recorded on the case appear on the timeline. Each entry links back to the case it came from (labeled with the case number when one is assigned), and clicking it opens that case. A client can have milestones from more than one case on their timeline if they have multiple cases. Milestone visibility follows the same case permissions as the rest of case data, so a user who can't view cases won't see these entries.
For CPC clients, the same estimated due date also shows up while a counselor is texting. When a conversation is linked to a client who has a case with a due date, Inbox adds a Due Date fact next to the client's phone, email, and date of birth in the conversation sidebar. It uses the client's primary case: the most recent active case, or the most recent case overall if none is active.
If the client has more than one case, the linked Cases card in the same sidebar lists each case with its own due date (when that case has one), so staff can tell at a glance which case a due date belongs to. Cases with no dated pregnancy show no due date on their row.
This fact only appears for organizations with the CPC (pregnancy center) module and only when the linked client has a dated case. It follows the same estimated due date precedence as the timeline milestone above: sonogram date, then patient-reported (PT) date, then 280 days from the LMP.
The case activity feed can be filtered by activity type, including an Ultrasounds filter alongside Visits, STI Tests, Benefits Received, and Vital History. Use the filter to quickly find ultrasound activity within a busy case history.
When an appointment is linked to a case through a visit, its scheduling activity shows up on that case's timeline as well as the client's: an Appointment Scheduled entry when it's booked, an Appointment Rescheduled entry if its date changes, and an Appointment Cancelled entry if it's cancelled. Only appointments actually linked through a visit are included; simply sharing the same client does not link an appointment to a case.
A case's Charts tab lists chart entries from every visit linked to the case, including the built-in visit charts (Pregnancy Test, Ultrasound, STI Test, Client Advocacy/Counseling, Vitals, Medical History, and Abuse & Safety Screening) alongside any custom chart entries.
• A built-in chart that nobody has opened or acted on yet for a visit shows a Not started status. This is an honest placeholder: it means the chart exists as an option on that visit but no one has recorded anything, completed it, or sent it for review — not that content was already recorded.
• As soon as staff use Mark Completed or Send for Review on that built-in chart, the row on the Charts tab switches to the chart's real status (for example Draft, Needs Signature, In Review, or Signed), the same statuses a custom chart entry shows.
• Each built-in chart appears once per visit on this list. Once real activity exists, you will not see a duplicate "Not started" placeholder alongside it.
See Note Locks, Doc Alert Recovery, and Chart Addendums for what happens when a built-in chart section is sent for review and locked.
Case Type classifies the ongoing concern. It is separate from the type or service recorded on an individual visit.
Open the saved case's Case Info section for the familiar case interview, including Medication/Drug Usage, Birth Control, Abuse, and pregnancy-related groups that apply to the case. The case's physical-symptoms selection is included with its birth-control questions.
These restored Case Info fields use the same case data as mapped clinical questions. A later permitted save to the same field changes the current case value; creating a second case is not the way to keep today's visit separate.
The detailed pain, pain rating, vaginal bleeding/spotting, and prenatal-care fields are not part of the restored Case Info groups. Use the clinical form provided for those observations and confirm the correct visit and case. Do not assume every field described as a symptom moved to the same location.
Previous Pregnancies remains client history. It is separate from today's pregnancy test and the current case.
• Keep the case status current.
• Put short-term work into tasks instead of leaving it in free-text notes only.
• Add notes that explain decisions, handoffs, and follow-up context.
• Close or resolve the case when the work is complete according to your organization's process.
• Prefer one case per ongoing concern with multiple visits — not a new case for every walk-in on the same pregnancy.
• Client Management Overview
• Visits Overview
• From Booking to Visit: How Records Flow
• The Visit Board
• Appointments vs. Visits
• Client Records and History
• Note Locks, Doc Alert Recovery, and Chart Addendums
• Managing Chart Templates
