Organizing Patients with Tags

Tags give you a simple way to label patients so you can group them, filter your contact list, and trigger the right follow-up without manually tracking anything. This article walks you through creating tags, applying them to individual patients or in bulk, and putting them to work in your practice.

What Tags Are For

Think of a tag as a sticky note you attach to a patient record. Common examples include:

• New Patient (someone who has never been seen)
• Implant Consult (scheduled or requested a consult)
• Reactivation (has not been in for 18 months or more)
• Invisalign Inquiry
• VIP or Referral Source

A patient can hold as many tags as you need, and tags are visible right on the patient record so your front desk always has context at a glance.

Creating a New Tag

Tags are created on the fly, so there is no separate setup screen. The fastest way to create one is to apply it directly to a contact.

1. Open the Contacts tab from the main menu.
2. Click the patient's name to open their record.
3. Find the Tags field near the top of the record and click inside it.
4. Type the name of the tag you want, for example Reactivation.
5. If the tag does not exist yet, you will see an option to Add "Reactivation". Click it to create and apply it at the same time.
6. Click Save to confirm the change.

Applying Tags to Multiple Patients at Once

If you have a group of patients who all need the same tag, use bulk actions instead of editing records one by one.

1. Go to the Contacts tab.
2. Use the search bar or filters to narrow your list to the patients you want. For example, filter by last appointment date to find patients who have not visited in over a year.
3. Check the box next to each patient you want to tag, or select all visible results.
4. Click Actions at the top of the list and choose Add Tag.
5. Select or type the tag name, then confirm.

See Bulk Actions on Contacts for a full walkthrough of everything you can do when multiple patients are selected.

Removing a Tag

To remove a tag from a single patient, open their record, click the X next to the tag name in the Tags field, and save. You can also remove a tag from multiple patients at once using the same bulk action flow described above, choosing Remove Tag instead.

Filtering and Finding Patients by Tag

Once your patients are tagged, you can pull up any group in seconds.

1. Open the Contacts tab.
2. Click Filters and choose Tag as the filter field.
3. Select the tag you want, such as Implant Consult.
4. Your list updates to show only patients with that tag.

If you use this filter regularly, save it as a smart list so you do not have to rebuild it each time. Learn how in Building Smart Lists and Filters.

Using Tags to Trigger Automations

Tags become especially powerful when they kick off a sequence of follow-up messages automatically. For example, you can set up an automation that fires whenever a patient receives the Reactivation tag, sending them a text a few days later with a link to book an appointment.

This pairing of tags and automations is what lets a small front-desk team stay in touch with hundreds of patients without doing it manually. Common automation triggers include adding New Patient (to start a welcome series), Reactivation (to send a recall message), and Post-Visit (to request a review).

Keeping Your Tags Organized

A short list of well-named tags is far more useful than dozens of overlapping ones. A few habits that help:

• Agree on a standard tag list with your team and write it down somewhere everyone can reference.
• Review your tags a couple of times a year and remove any that are no longer in use.
• Pair tags with custom fields when you need to store a specific value (like a treatment date) rather than just a label.

Once your tagging system is in place, a natural next step is Tracking New Patients with Pipelines, which lets you move tagged contacts through a visual stage-by-stage workflow from first inquiry to scheduled appointment.