# Home care visit log in SharePoint, with missed-visit view

> For the full documentation index, see https://250highstreet.com/llms.txt

> Replace paper and texts with two SharePoint lists: clients, and a visit log by caregiver with a missed-visit view and supervisor check. Notes privacy limits.

Keep a Clients list with a short code only, and a Visits list with one row per planned visit. Two views answer the daily questions: today's visits, and visits past their date and not marked done. Do not store diagnoses, medications or care notes in the list.

This log is a record of what staff typed. It is not a medical record, it is not an emergency system, and it does not tell you what rules you must follow. Ask your compliance advisor about those. Exact names may differ on your screen.

## Why paper and text messages fall short

Some home care teams track visits with a paper schedule and group text messages. It works until someone needs an answer. A caregiver texts "done" and the message scrolls away. A supervisor asks which visits happened last Tuesday, and three people give three answers. A visit that never happened leaves no trace at all, because nobody wrote anything.

Problems:

- The schedule is on paper in one office and in texts on several phones.
- A missed visit is found when a client or family calls, not before.
- Finding one client's visits from last month means scrolling through old messages.
- Personal details sit in text threads that are hard to control.

A list helps with the first three. The fourth is a privacy issue, and a later section covers it.

## What you are building

You will build two SharePoint lists:

- "Clients": one row per client, with a short code and a service area.
- "Visits": one row per planned visit, with the client, the caregiver, the date, a status and a supervisor check.

A lookup column in "Visits" points to "Clients". Staff pick the client from a list instead of typing a name each time, so the spelling is the same on every row.

If you are new to lists, see "[Replace a spreadsheet tracker with a SharePoint list](/guides/replace-spreadsheet-with-sharepoint-list/)". For a similar sign-in and sign-out pattern, see "[A visitor sign-in log in SharePoint](/guides/visitor-log-sign-in-sharepoint/)". This guide does not repeat those steps.

## Privacy first: this is information about people in their homes

A visit log holds information about clients and about your staff. Plan the privacy side before you build.

1.  Ask your compliance advisor or attorney which records you must keep, for how long, and where they may be stored. Rules differ by place and by type of service. This guide does not state any rule or make any claim about legal or regulatory compliance, and the list does not replace your required records. Check with your compliance lead before you store any patient health information in this list, including which details count as health information for your agency.
2.  Collect the least you can. One way to start is a short client code, such as "C-014", and a service area. Do not put diagnoses, medications, care notes, home addresses, phone numbers or birth dates in this list.
3.  Decide who can open the site. Picking another view is open to anyone who has the list, so a view never hides a client from staff; permissions do. Microsoft's help page on customizing permissions for a list or library says "we highly recommend using the built-in SharePoint groups for communication sites." The same page says "breaking inheritance and setting item level permissions is a supported scenario within reasonable use." Ask your admin which setup fits your site.
4.  Check your Microsoft agreement. Microsoft says it offers a Business Associate Agreement to covered entity and business associate customers, and lists SharePoint Online and Power Automate under Office 365 as in scope. Microsoft also says "using Microsoft services doesn't on its own achieve HIPAA compliance." Ask your compliance lead and your admin whether it applies to your agency.
5.  Decide when to delete old rows. Ask your compliance advisor or attorney how long to keep them, and remove them on that day.

## Step 1. Create the "Clients" list

Microsoft's help page on creating a list says to select "+ New", then "List", and pick the blank list option. Type a name and select "Create". Name the list "Clients". Then set up these columns:

1.  Title (Single line of text). A blank list opens with a standard Title column. Rename it to "Client code". Type only the short code.
2.  Service area (Single line of text). Type a broad area name, such as "North route". Use a text column here, not a Choice column. Microsoft's help page on lookup columns lists the supported source column types: "Single line of text", "Number", "Date and Time" and "Lookup (single value)". Choice is not in that list. You will want to show the area inside "Visits", so Service area must be text.

Add one row for each client. Add only what you need, and update the list when service ends.

## Step 2. Create the "Visits" list

Next, make a blank list called "Visits". Its columns:

1.  Title (Single line of text). Rename it to "Visit". Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: use it for a short label such as the visit date.
2.  Client (Lookup). In the list, select "Add column", then "Lookup". Microsoft's help page says: under "Select a list as a source", choose the list; under "Select a column from the list above", choose the column to display. Pick "Clients" and "Client code". Use "More options" to display more columns from the source list, and tick "Service area". Select "Save". Microsoft's page says "Lookup columns should be created and used within the same site," so make both lists on the same site.
3.  Caregiver (Person). Staff pick the caregiver assigned to the visit.
4.  Visit date (Date and Time, date only).
5.  Status (Choice): 1 Scheduled, 2 Done, 3 Missed, 4 Rescheduled. Set the default to 1 Scheduled.
6.  Supervisor reviewed (Yes/No). The supervisor ticks this after checking the row.
7.  Note (Single line of text). Keep it short and free of care details, such as "Client asked to move to Friday".

## Step 3. Plan the visits

A coordinator opens "Visits" and selects "New" for each planned visit. They pick the client, pick the caregiver, enter the date and save. Status starts as 1 Scheduled.

One habit keeps the list clean: one person plans visits, and everyone else only changes the status. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: one planner avoids duplicate rows.

## Step 4. Mark the visit as done

After the visit, the caregiver opens the row and changes Status to 2 Done. A list row can be edited, so closing a visit is a change to the same row, not a new one. If the visit moved, change Status to 4 Rescheduled and add a new row for the new date.

Your records should show what really happened. If you correct a mistake, follow a rule that your compliance advisor or attorney agrees with. One way to start is to add a note to the row instead of deleting it.

## Step 5. Build the two daily views

Staff need two answers every day: what is planned for today, and what is overdue.

View 1: "Today"

1.  Open "Visits". Open the view menu, then choose "Edit current view" to open the classic view editor.
2.  Under "Filters", choose "Show items only when the following is true".
3.  Pick Visit date, then "is equal to", and type \[Today\].
4.  Show the columns Client, Service area, Caregiver, Status and Supervisor reviewed. Save the view with the name "Today".

Microsoft's help page on filtering a view says "It is not possible to use the \[Today\] or \[Me\] filters when filtering using a column header" and "You must use the classic view editor to filter columns using these keywords." Microsoft's example for a date column is "Due Date is equal to \[Today\]".

View 2: "Possible missed visits"

1.  In the classic view editor, create a view named "Possible missed visits".
2.  Filter it to show rows where Visit date is less than \[Today\] and Status is equal to 1 Scheduled.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: set blank and "is not equal to" filters in the classic view editor too.

Any row in this view is a visit whose date has passed and whose status was never changed. It might be a missed visit, or it might be a visit that happened and was never marked. The view cannot tell which. A supervisor asks the caregiver and fixes the row. This view is a list on a screen. It is not an alarm, and it does not call anyone.

## Step 6. Add a supervisor review

Once a day, a supervisor opens "Possible missed visits", fixes each row, and then reviews the day's finished visits. Tick Supervisor reviewed on each row that has been checked. A third view, filtered on Supervisor reviewed equal to No, shows what is still waiting for a check. Make it the same way as the others.

Do not rely on someone remembering to open a view. If you want an email when a visit is late, see "[Late tasks nobody notices: setting up late alerts](/guides/late-tasks-nobody-notices/)" and "[Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list](/guides/send-reminder-before-due-date/)". A late alert is a convenience for staff, not a safety system.

## Step 7. Let each caregiver see their own visits

Caregivers need their own rows. A view filtered on \[Me\] can show only the visits assigned to the person who opens it. A view is not security, so everyone with access to the list can still switch views and see other rows. If caregivers must not see each other's rows, read "[Let each person see only their own items in a SharePoint list](/guides/people-see-only-their-own-items-sharepoint-list/)" and ask your admin.

Phones: the Lists apps for Android and iOS are gone, retired by Microsoft in mid-November 2025. Caregivers open [https://office.com/launch/Lists](https://office.com/launch/Lists) in the phone browser and pick the Visits list.

## What to avoid

- Do not put diagnoses, medications, care notes or addresses in these lists. Keep those in the records your compliance advisor and attorney tell you to keep.
- Do not count on the \[Me\] view to keep caregivers out of other clients' rows. Only permissions do that.
- Do not use this list as your emergency or safety plan. Follow your own written plan.
- Do not make "Service area" a Choice column if you want it to show in "Visits". Lookups do not support Choice columns.
- Do not share the site with everyone in your organization. Ask your admin who has access now.
- Do not keep rows forever. Ask your compliance advisor or attorney how long to keep them.
- Do not let two people plan visits for the same week without agreeing who adds the rows.
- Do not delete a row to fix a mistake. Add a note and ask your advisor what your records need.

## Honest limits

A SharePoint list records what someone typed. It does not prove that a visit happened, and it does not check where a caregiver was. If you need a signature, a time record or a location record, that is a separate step in your own process.

A list does not decide what a missed visit means, and it does not compare your schedule to any rule. Your compliance advisor can tell you which records you need.

Lookups have limits. Microsoft's page names a List View Lookup Threshold "which by default is twelve lookup columns," and this tracker uses one lookup.

Finally, a person must type every entry. If staff skip it, the list is wrong. The system works only when the caregiver marks the visit soon after it ends, and a supervisor reads the missed view every day.

## When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: \$5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "[What a SharePoint tracker costs to build](/guides/what-a-sharepoint-tracker-costs/)". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: [Tools I built](/portfolio/)

## FAQ

### What are the time requirements for a home health visit?

This list does not set or check any. It stores a visit date and a status. Ask your compliance advisor or attorney which time rules apply to your service.

### Can I put home health visit codes in this log?

This log is not a billing or coding tool. Ask your compliance advisor where codes belong, and keep them out of this list unless your advisor says otherwise.

### Where does a home health visit note go?

Not in this list. Care notes stay out, as the Privacy section says. The Note column holds only a short scheduling line, such as "Client asked to move to Friday".

### Can a view hide clients from some staff?

No. Any person who can open the list can pick another view. Limit who opens the list with permissions, and ask your admin which groups fit.

### Does this list meet my regulatory requirements?

This guide cannot say. Rules differ by place and by type of service. Ask your compliance advisor or attorney which records you must keep and how. This list only records what staff type.

## Sources

- [Microsoft Learn, HIPAA and HITECH Act](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/regulatory/offering-hipaa-hitech)
- [Microsoft Support, Microsoft Lists mobile apps retirement](https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/SharePoint/lists/microsoft-lists-mobile-apps-retirement)
- [Microsoft Support, Create list relationships by using lookup columns](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/data-and-lists/create-list-relationships-by-using-lookup-columns)
- [Microsoft Support, Use filtering to modify a SharePoint view](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-filtering-to-modify-a-sharepoint-view-3d8efc52-0808-4731-8f9b-3dfaeacea3d4)
- [Microsoft Support, Customize permissions for a SharePoint list or library](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/sharepoint-sharing-and-permissions/customize-permissions-for-a-sharepoint-list-or-library)
- [Microsoft Support, Create a list](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/lists/data-and-lists/create-a-list)

## Related guides

- [A pest control service log in SharePoint](/guides/pest-control-service-log-sharepoint/)
- [Daycare attendance and pickup log in SharePoint](/guides/daycare-attendance-tracker-sharepoint/)
- [Restaurant prep list and food temperature log on a phone](/guides/restaurant-food-temperature-log-prep-checklist/)
- [Lawn care customers and crew schedule in SharePoint](/guides/lawn-care-customer-schedule-sharepoint/)

Source: https://250highstreet.com/guides/home-health-visit-log-sharepoint/