Reviewing and Approving Public Animal Reports
In this tutorial, you will learn how to review the submissions that come in through your Public Animal Report Form and turn them into patient records or hotline incidents.
Where Reports Go
When a member of the public submits your form, the report lands in a private review queue inside WRMD – it does not create a patient automatically. The team members you designated as notification recipients receive an email and an in-app notification, so they know a new report is waiting.
Finding the Queue
Open the Add New Patient page and click the Public Animal Reports link or browse directly to the Public Animal Reports page. You will see all of the submissions for your organization.
The Queue at a Glance
The queue is organized by status. Use the Pending, Approved, and Rejected filters to switch between them – new submissions start in Pending. Each row shows the Reference code, Species, Reporter, when it was Submitted, and the Outcome. A submission may be flagged as a Possible duplicate when it closely matches another recent report, so you can spot repeat reports of the same animal.
Opening a Report
Click a row to open the full report. The details are grouped into Animal, Where it was found, What happened, and Reporter, and any Photos the reporter attached appear alongside them. You can return to the list at any time with Return to Public Animal Reports.
The form keeps the reporter's words exactly as submitted. Use Show original to compare against the untouched Original submission at any time.
Editing Before You Act
You can tidy up or correct a report before acting on it – for example, fixing a misspelled species or formatting a phone number. Make your changes and click Save edits. Your edits are saved to a working copy; the reporter's original submission is always preserved.
Admitting as a New Patient
When a report is ready to become a patient, click Admit as a new patient. WRMD asks you to confirm – Admit this as a new patient? A patient record will be created. – and then creates the patient record from the report's information, copying over any photos. The report moves to the Approved status and shows the new Case number.
Saving as a Hotline Incident
If a report is better handled as a phone-style inquiry than a patient, click Create hotline incident. This saves the report as a hotline incident instead – no patient record is created.
Rejecting a Submission
For spam, duplicates, or reports you will not act on, click Reject. You can add an optional Rejection note for your own records; this note is internal, and the submitter is not notified that their report was rejected. Rejected reports move to the Rejected status.
Reopening a Report
Changed your mind about an approved or rejected report? Click Reopen to move the submission back to the pending queue so you can act on it again.