How to manage liberally-scheduled orders

This guide outlines the key methods for managing liberally-scheduled orders. ALIS Pass Meds pages, administration records, and Pass Med Reports accurately reflect this flexible scheduling, making medication management safer and more efficient. 

About liberal scheduling

A liberally-scheduled order is a medication or treatment that does not require administration at a specific, precise time (such as 9:00 AM). 

Instead, these orders allow for flexibility, requiring administration only within a specified med pass time shift (i.e., anytime during Morning shift, 6:00 AM - 12:00 PM). 

For more information on Med Pass Time Shifts, refer to this Medications Settings Guide. 

Enable orders for liberal scheduling

Enable an order for liberal scheduling in the Scheduling & Dosage section of the Process New Medication Order page (Routines and PRNs only), or the Add/Edit Order pages (Routines, PRNs, Treatments). Set the liberal schedule when setting up the administration time: 

1. Select the Time from the dropdown menu, which displays the names of your Med Pass Time Shifts.
2. In the dropdown menu to the right, select During Time Frame. 
3. In the Administer dropdown menu, select Anytime. 

Pass Meds resident page 

When on a resident's Pass Meds page, the liberal schedule will be reflected in various ways. The "schedule" detail will show as During Time Frame - Anytime.

Order Badges

The LATE, OK, NOW, and WAIT badges accurately state the order status based on the full med pass shift time, providing a more realistic view for liberally-scheduled orders. 

When you click on the order badge, the amount of time remaining in the shift (equal to the amount of you have to pass the order) appears below the initial order details.

Recorded Medications 

In the Recorded Medications section of each resident's Pass Meds page, the Scheduled timestamp displays in a clear time range format that represents the full shift time. 

• Example: "Noon 12:00 PM - 4:59 PM CST" 

MAR Stamping for Overnight Shifts 

For liberally scheduled orders administered during an overnight shift (such as Hour of Sleep), administrations recorded during that shift are displayed on the date the shift began. 

• Example: If the order is scheduled for 11/19/25 Hour of Sleep 10:00 PM to 5:59 AM (11/20/25), the MAR will be stamped for 11/19/25.

This behavior ensures that overnight shifts remain grouped together on medication records. It applies to the both the MAR Editor and Filled MAR PDF.

Edit Administration Record 

Editing an administration record requires specific security role permissions. Contact your company administrator to confirm you have the correct access to ALIS. For assistance with updating permissions, contact your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team. 

When editing an administration record (from Med Pass History, MAR Editor, Pass Meds, or Record PRNs), the ‘Scheduled’ field on the side panel displays the schedule using the time range format: 

Pass Meds Report 

The below information will help you better understand how liberally-scheduled orders are displayed in the Pass Meds report. For more general information on how to filter and best utilize this report, refer to the Pass Med and Medication Exceptions Reports guide.

Changing your Medications Settings (Med Pass Shift Times, Variance Threshold) will not change the results displayed in the report.  

Scheduled Date 

The Scheduled Date filter defaults to today's date, and the data in the table reflects that 24-hour window. 

For orders scheduled on an overnight shift, you must update the Scheduled Date filter to reflect both the start and end dates of that shift.

• Example: If today is 11/19/25 and the Hour of Sleep shift runs from 10:00 PM to 5:59 AM (11/20/25), set the Scheduled Date filter to 11/19/2025 - 11/20/2025 to show the order(s) in the report.  

The Scheduled Date column displays the time range format: "11/19/2025 Noon 12:00 AM - 4:59 PM CST"

Variance 

Liberally-scheduled orders recorded anytime between the scheduled shift's start time and its end time will show as ‘On Time’ and match the option in the Variance filter.

Variance calculations (+/- hours:minutes) are based on the time before the start of the shift or after the end of the shift. 

The actual variance value (i.e., +0:15 or -0:30) is calculated only if the administration occurs outside the shift window:

• Negative Variance (Late): The calculation reflects the time elapsed after the end of the scheduled shift until the medication was recorded. 

• Positive Variance (Early): The calculation reflects the time recorded before the start of the scheduled shift.

Variance Calculation Example

Assume a liberally-scheduled Noon shift is defined as 11:00 AM - 3:29 PM.

Related Articles:

• Medications Settings Guide 
• Pass Meds Reference Guide
• Med Pass History
• How to edit a resident's MAR
• Pass Med and Medication Exceptions Reports

For more assistance with Medication Management,

Contact our ALIS Customer Success Team:

888.404.ALIS (2547) or support@go-alis.com