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Finalizing a note

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Written by Jason Fried

Finalizing a note marks it as the official clinical record for that session and locks it from further editing.

Steps

  1. Make any final edits to the draft

  2. Click Finalize at the top of the note editor

  3. A confirmation appears — "Finalize and lock?"

  4. Click Yes

The note's status changes from "Notes Ready" to "Finalized." All sections become read-only, the Finalize button is replaced by a Finalized indicator, and the note is now part of your clinical record.

Why finalize?

Three reasons:

  1. Medico-legal clarity. A finalized note represents the documented record of what happened in the session, at a specific time. Editing it later muddies that record. (If you do need to edit a finalized note — corrections, addenda — there are right ways to do it.)

  2. Triggers downstream behavior. When you finalize a session note, Confidant uses it to update the patient's case overview (the running summary that gives context to future generations).

  3. Frees the session. Once finalized, the note becomes part of the previous-session context shown to the AI when generating the next session's note for this patient.

Before you finalize, check…

  • Did you set the diagnosis? You can't change it after finalization without unlocking. Search the DSM-5-TR picker by code (e.g. F41.1) or name (e.g. anxiety).

  • Are there any patient quotes you want to scrub (privacy, consent, accuracy)? Edit before finalizing.

  • Does the recap make sense as a pre-session re-orient? It'll be the first thing you see next time.

  • Is there anything the AI invented that didn't actually happen in the session? This is rare but worth a final scan.

What you can still do after finalizing

  • Copy the note text to paste into your EHR

  • Export to PDF for paper records

  • Read the transcript for reference

What you can't do after finalizing

  • Edit any of the SOAP/DAP sections

  • Edit the recap

  • Regenerate the note (the existing one is the record)

  • Change the diagnosis

Unlocking a finalized note

There are situations where a finalized note genuinely needs to be edited — a transcription error you didn't catch, a patient request for correction, an addendum. There's an unlock action available on the session, though we deliberately don't make it a one-click affair. If you don't see it, contact support and we'll walk you through it.

The right pattern for most after-the-fact corrections is to leave the original finalized note intact and add a dated addendum at the end of the relevant section, rather than rewriting history.

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