# Patient forms and requests (/docs/en/guides/patient-forms)



A request asks a patient to complete forms or enter vital readings. The patient answers from an emailed link and the answers go into their record. You can also fill a form in yourself during a visit.

Sending needs the **Send email, forms, and requests** permission, which every default role has. Filling a form in for a patient needs clinical access to that patient, so a front desk user can send a form they cannot fill in.

## Send a request to the patient [#send]

1. Open the patient and choose **Send form** in the **Forms** section, or **Send to patient** in **Requests**.
2. Select the forms and readings to ask for. They are asked in the order listed, and the arrows reorder them.
3. Leave **Repeat** on **Once**.
4. Check **Recipient email** and **Expires**. The link expires after 7 days unless you change it.
5. Choose **Send link**.

**Request sent** appears with the link, and you can use **Copy link**. The email is queued, which does not mean it was delivered. See [how delivery is tracked](/docs/en/guides/patient-messages#delivery).

<Callout type="warn">
  Choosing **Send link** emails the patient at once, and anyone who has the link can answer until it expires or you cancel it. Check the recipient address first.
</Callout>

The patient does not sign in. They open the link, complete each step and choose **Submit step**. Each submitted step is saved separately, so a half-finished request still contains the answers already sent.

If the patient has opted out of email, the dialog says so and **Send link** stays unavailable. Without an email address, add one first. A form marked **Unavailable** cannot be selected until it is repaired in the Library.

## Ask on a schedule [#schedule]

To collect the same form or reading repeatedly, set **Repeat** to **Daily**, **Weekly** or **Every 2 weeks**. For weekly, choose the day. Set **From** and, if the follow-up should end, **Until**. Choose **Start schedule** (the button reads **Start daily asks** or **Start weekly asks** for those options).

Scheduled asks are not separate links. They reach the patient in their daily email, at the send time set under [practice settings](/docs/en/guides/practice-settings). Each selected item becomes its own schedule under **Home monitoring**, and a new schedule does not mean the patient has answered.

To stop asking, open the schedule under **Home monitoring** and choose **Pause** or **Stop**. Stopping cancels future asks and keeps existing answers. Cancelling a one-time request does not affect a schedule.

## Fill in a form at the practice [#fill-in]

1. Choose **New → Form**, or **Fill in form** in the **Forms** section.
2. Select one or more published forms and choose **Add**. Nothing is sent to the patient.
3. Enter the answers and choose **Save response**.
4. Continue until each form shows **Saved**.

Answers are not saved automatically. If the form is updated while you fill it in, your answers are kept: check them against the new version and save again.

To finish a request the patient started, open it from **Requests** or the chart and use **Save draft** and **Submit step**. **Edit submitted step** and **Save edit** change answers entered by staff. If a step was already answered, your answers are not saved.

## Follow up on a request [#follow-up]

**Requests** lists what is **Waiting on the patient** and what **Came back or closed**. Open a row's menu for these actions:

* **Remind** sends the patient their link again by email.
* **Cancel request** makes the link stop working. Answers already submitted are kept.

Scheduled work that is overdue appears on the same page. Answers to scheduled asks are read in **Forms** and **Vitals**.

## Read and review answers [#review]

Returned forms appear in **Forms** in the record, and readings in **Vitals**. Open a response to see its questions, answers and where it came from: the patient by link, home monitoring, or entered at the clinic.

<AppScreenshot id="patient-request" alt="Requests list separating requests waiting on the patient from answered requests, with weight readings as examples" />

On a response from the patient, choose **Mark as reviewed** once you have read it. Salisan then shows who reviewed it and when. **Undo** removes that mark and keeps the answers.

## Related [#related]

* [Patient messages](/docs/en/guides/patient-messages)
* [Templates](/docs/en/guides/templates)
* [A patient didn't get my email](/docs/en/troubleshooting/patient-email-not-received)