Alerts flag things you need to know about — a high-risk score, a concerning item response, an administrative event. OutcomeTools raises them automatically based on rules built into each survey definition.
What triggers an alert
Alerts are driven by the event rules inside a survey's scoring definition. Common triggers include:
- Score or band thresholds — the overall or subscale score crosses a cut-off, or the result lands in a severe band.
- Specific item responses — for example, a non-zero answer on PHQ-9 item 9 (suicidal ideation) or any endorsed item on the C-SSRS.
- Custom rules defined on the instrument — the survey definition can combine any fields into an alert expression.
Every alert carries an event message, a category, and a numeric severity. The survey definition sets those values when the alert fires.
Where alerts appear
- Client Summary — active alerts appear on the client's Summary card.
- Survey review — if a completed survey triggered an alert, the review modal shows a colored banner at the top with the message and severity.
- Email — care-team members with the Alerts notification preference receive an email when an alert fires on a client they're on the care team for.
Acknowledging, commenting on, and clearing an alert
Anyone who can open the client's record can click an alert to view its details. Acting on the alert is more restricted:
- Acknowledge — marks the alert as seen by you. Available only to a notified recipient or a care-team member who hasn't acknowledged it yet.
- + Comment — add a note to the alert log (e.g. "Called client, scheduled safety plan review"). Available to level 2 and up, or to a notified recipient / care-team member at any level.
- Clear Alert — mark the alert as resolved. Use this after you've taken clinical action. Available to a care-team member of the client, or a level 5 admin who can reach the client.
The alert log shows every view, comment, acknowledgement, clear, and reactivation, with timestamps and who did it.
Reactivating a cleared alert
Once cleared, an alert can be Reactivated from the alert modal if the issue resurfaces (same access as clearing: a care-team member, or a level 5 admin). Reactivation is recorded in the log.
Finding alert history
All alerts on a client — active and cleared — are visible in the activity log filtered to the Alerts category (the full log view is level 4+). For account-wide analysis, the Reports tab has measures for alert counts, acknowledgement %, and average ack time.