Establishing a Clinical Will
A Clinical Will is a formal document that specifies what should happen to the practice if a practitioner passes away. It identifies a responsible person, the Clinical Executor, to take over management. To arrange access for the Clinical Executor, follow these steps:
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Obtain the following documents:
- A copy of the Clinical Will provided by the executor.
- The practitioner’s death certificate.
- Proof of identity (ID) of the person named in the Clinical Will.
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Submit these documents to Zanda support to grant access to the named individual.
This approach ensures a smooth transition by pre-defining responsibilities and access rights.
Keeping your practice ready for a handover
A Clinical Will works best alongside a few ongoing habits that keep your account itself ready for your Clinical Executor to take over without delay:
- Keep an up-to-date client list on hand. Export your client contact details and upcoming appointments from Zanda on a regular basis, and share the export with your Clinical Executor. This keeps client care on track during a handover and reflects continuity guidance from bodies such as BACP, COSCA, and AHPRA.
- Record continuity instructions in your Practice Manual. Add the steps your Clinical Executor should follow directly to your Practice Manual, so the rest of your team can find them too. See the FAQ below for how to do this.
- Have your Clinical Executor contact Zanda support with the right documents. See Managing a Zanda Account When the Account Owner Has Passed Away for the documents Zanda needs before granting access.
Note: If a death certificate is not yet available, for example while a case is still with a coroner, ask Zanda support to refer the request to the Zanda Data Protection Officer (DPO). Once the DPO has confirmed the requester’s identity and authority, they may approve limited actions, such as managing urgent appointments or contacting clients, while the full documentation is finalized.
Together, a Clinical Will and these habits protect your practice and your clients, whatever happens.
Setting up a deactivated user for your Clinical Executor
Alongside a Clinical Will, you can set up your Clinical Executor as their own user in Zanda ahead of time, then deactivate it until it’s actually needed. This keeps the account ready for a handover without giving anyone standing access in the meantime:
- Add the Clinical Executor as their own user, with restricted permissions for only what they would need to act for the practice, for example client contact details, the calendar, and SMS. Give them a non-practitioner user profile (leave Default Practitioner Profile unselected and set Access Level to Administrative), so this doesn’t add a practitioner to your subscription and doesn’t change your subscription cost. See Managing Users for how to set these permissions.
- Have the Clinical Executor log in once to set their own password and turn on two-factor authentication on their own device.
- Deactivate the user. This removes their login access immediately, so they have no access to the account until it’s actually needed.
- If access is needed, have the Clinical Executor contact Zanda support with the documents listed in Managing a Zanda Account When the Account Owner Has Passed Away. Once support has confirmed their identity and authority, Zanda reactivates their user. If a death certificate isn’t available yet, the DPO route described above still applies.
Caution: Never share or store the account owner’s own login in a will or executor pack. There’s also no need to store the Clinical Executor’s login details anywhere: they keep their own credentials from step 2, and the user stays deactivated and inaccessible until Zanda verifies the request and reactivates it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I store a Clinical Will or continuity instructions in Zanda?
For practice-wide instructions, such as what should happen to client care if you become incapacitated, ill, or unable to manage the practice, add the information to your Practice Manual. The Practice Manual is designed for practice policies and procedures, and users with Setup and Configure Zanda permission can create sections, add articles, save drafts, publish completed content, and make the manual available to all users in read-only mode.
To add continuity instructions to the Practice Manual:
- Go to User Menu > Account Settings > Practice > Practice Manual.
- Enable the Practice Manual if it is not already enabled.
- Add a section or article for your continuity plan or Clinical Will instructions.
- Save the article as a draft while you are preparing it, or click Publish Now when it is complete.
- When the content is ready for your team, turn on Show for All Users so other account users can access the manual in read-only mode.
Use Records > Files or Admin > Admin Files only when the document belongs on a specific client profile. These file areas store documents against an individual client record; they are not the best place for practice-wide continuity instructions.
For a formal legal Clinical Will, keep following the process in Establishing a Clinical Will above so the executor can provide the required documents to Zanda support if access is needed later.
What happens to my Zanda account and client records if I pass away?
Your executor, or your next of kin if there is no Clinical Will, can ask Zanda to close your account or store it. See Managing a Zanda Account When the Account Owner Has Passed Away for the documents they will need and how to send the request. Closing an account ends access to it but does not, by itself, permanently delete your client records. See How to Store or Close Your Account for what closing and Storage Mode each mean for your data.