# Clinical Notes “Last Updated” timestamp changes on unrelated saves **URL:** \ **Category:** Day-to-Day Users\ **Created:** [September 29, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078 "2026-09-29T21:20:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ninjatx](https://community.open-emr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/898d66/32.png) [@ninjatx](https://community.open-emr.org/u/ninjatx)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/1 "2026-09-29T21:20:47Z")
I found a behavior in the Clinical Notes form where the displayed **Last Updated** timestamp for older notes can change even when that specific note was NOT edited. From a documentation and legal standpoint, this can cause some problems. `form_clinical_notes.last_updated` is defined with `ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP`, and `save.php` appears to re-save all notes in the form. If another save changes a field such as `authorized`, MariaDB updates `last_updated` for those older rows as well. Example: - Note A created earlier - Note B added later - A save by a different user changes `authorized` - Note A’s `last_updated` now reflects the newer save time, even though Note A itself was not edited This makes `last_updated` unreliable as a user-facing indication of when that individual Clinical Note was actually created or last intentionally edited. I noticed this only appeared recently after the 8.0.0 upgrade. ---
**Author:** ![sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/user_avatar/community.open-emr.org/sjpadgett/32/21623_2.png) [@sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/u/sjpadgett)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 9:52pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/2 "2026-09-29T21:52:24Z")
Hi @ninjatx I seem to recall someone has a PR for notes concerning save. I’ll track author down and see where it’s at. If not, I find this very concerning and will look into once I get caught up a little. ---
**Author:** ![sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/user_avatar/community.open-emr.org/sjpadgett/32/21623_2.png) [@sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/u/sjpadgett)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 10:10pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/3 "2026-09-29T22:10:39Z")
If I was to give you a patch would you be able to test for me? It’d save me a heck of a lot of time. ---
**Author:** ![ninjatx](https://community.open-emr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/898d66/32.png) [@ninjatx](https://community.open-emr.org/u/ninjatx)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 10:23pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/4 "2026-09-29T22:23:54Z")
@sjpadgett Yes, of course! I will be happy to! ---
**Author:** ![sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/user_avatar/community.open-emr.org/sjpadgett/32/21623_2.png) [@sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/u/sjpadgett)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2026, 10:41pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/5 "2026-09-29T22:41:36Z")
Thanks, about an hour or so. ---
**Author:** ![sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/user_avatar/community.open-emr.org/sjpadgett/32/21623_2.png) [@sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/u/sjpadgett)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 12:47am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/6 "2026-09-30T00:47:43Z")
Hi @ninjatx , I’ve tested some and appears I got it but you let me know. Just one file a service so unzip in your openemr root directory. Here’s PR: [fix(clinical-notes): preserve timestamps for unchanged notes by sjpadgett · Pull Request #14321 · openemr/openemr · GitHub](https://github.com/openemr/openemr/pull/14321) Good luck! [clinical-note-fix.zip](https://community.open-emr.org/uploads/short-url/3QrBBChXZXYnS0S5tfkpNhW97iC.zip) (6.1 KB) ---
**Author:** ![ninjatx](https://community.open-emr.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/898d66/32.png) [@ninjatx](https://community.open-emr.org/u/ninjatx)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 2:36am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/7 "2026-09-30T02:36:58Z")
Verified in production on OpenEMR 8.4.1. Saving an encounter without editing any clinical notes no longer changes their Last Updated timestamps or authorship. The fix is working correctly on my production server. Thank you so much!! @sjpadgett ---
**Author:** ![sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/user_avatar/community.open-emr.org/sjpadgett/32/21623_2.png) [@sjpadgett](https://community.open-emr.org/u/sjpadgett)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 7:24am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/clinical-notes-last-updated-timestamp-changes-on-unrelated-saves/27078/8 "2026-09-30T07:24:19Z")
You’re welcome. Thanks for detailed report. Be Blessed…