Care Guidelines Overview

You can set up the care guidelines for a patient using the Care Guidelines template.

Care Guidelines are made up of care guideline orderables (formerly protocols) and recommended care items with minimal difference in case of clinical workflow. Some guideline items are performed on a specific time interval, which is indicated by a date in the Due column, and others are not. Items with due dates are ordered, while items without a due date are listed as a reminder to the provider to review them with the patient and update their status without having to place orders. For configuration and setup purposes, care guidelines are separated into two types, care guideline orderables and recommended care. Each type of guideline is configured differently.

• Care Guideline Orderables are those items that are associated with orders in the application; they have CPT® billing and compendium codes.
• Recommended Care items do not appear in the Orders table. They include things, such as medications and patient advice to quit smoking or to follow a low sodium diet, which are part of care guidelines and recommendations from the different medical academies and other reference sources, and which do not have orders associated with them.
• Guidelines is a general term referring to both the care guideline orderables and recommended care items (non-orders). The term Care Guidelines may be used interchangeably with guidelines.

Before using the Care Guidelines panel on the Care Guidelines template, you should review the guidelines that come shipped with the system to ensure that these guidelines meet the needs of the practice.