How to Process Pharmacy Orders in ALIS

After a resident has been mapped between the pharmacy and ALIS, the next step is to process each resident's orders. When processing an order in ALIS, you verify the order details sent from the pharmacy and manually add the information that will display in Pass Meds and on MAR documents.

About Processing Orders

After a resident has been successfully mapped between the pharmacy and ALIS, the next step is to process incoming medication orders. Processing an order verifies the details sent by the pharmacy and allows you to add information that will display in Pass Meds and on Medication Administration Record (MAR) documents.

Pharmacy systems send medication orders to ALIS as structured data. ALIS interprets these codes to automatically populate many order details. In many cases, the order can be processed with minimal changes. However, you may want to add additional instructions or configure features such as patch administration, injection sites, vitals checks, or special scheduling.

Processing orders ensures the resident’s MAR stays accurate and synchronized with the pharmacy.

When You First Connect Your Pharmacy

When your pharmacy integration is first activated and resident messages are mapped, each resident’s medication orders will appear in the Incoming Orders tab.

This initial batch may include all active pharmacy orders for each resident, so reviewing and processing them can take several hours depending on community size. Be sure to plan adequate time for this task prior to your eMAR go-live date.

After the initial setup, the Incoming Orders tab functions like an inbox:

• Only new, updated, or discontinued orders appear.
• Once processed or dismissed, the order leaves the queue.
• Regular review ensures each resident’s MAR stays up to date with the pharmacy.

Incoming Orders Tab

The Incoming Orders tab on the Pharmacies page is where all order processing occurs. 

For residents with multiple orders awaiting processing, select the View All Orders button to open a new page with order information for one specific resident. 

View All Orders page

The View All Orders page displays all pharmacy messages for a single resident and contains four sections.

Resident Details

Displays key resident profile information such as Diagnoses and Allergies. This helps confirm order safety while processing medications.

Unprocessed Orders

Lists pharmacy orders that still require processing.

Current Orders

Shows all orders currently active on the resident’s MAR. This section helps identify duplicates or confirm existing medications.

Process History

Displays a history of previously processed pharmacy messages for that resident.

Begin Processing an Order

To begin processing a resident's medications, click the Process button on the right of an order.

Click Process next to any order to open the Process Medication Order page.

Processing an order generally involves three steps:

1. Review pharmacy-sent information
   • Medication name and strength
   • Prescriber
   • Instructions
   • Route
2. Add or update additional order details
   • Instructions for med passers
   • Scheduling adjustments
   • Safety checks such as vitals or pain level tracking
3. Click Process Order
   • This adds the medication to the resident’s MAR.

Important: If the pharmacy order contains major inaccuracies (such as the wrong dosage), do not process the order. Contact the pharmacy and request a corrected order. Once the updated message arrives, process the corrected order and dismiss the incorrect one from the Incoming Orders list.

Top of Process Order page

1. Resident Health Details and Med Cart: Review basic health details about the resident. You can also update the Med Cart for this resident. Refer to this Med Carts guide for more information. 
2. Order Type: A blue bar at the top indicates whether the order is interpreted as Routine or PRN. Because pharmacy instructions may vary, ALIS may occasionally interpret the order type incorrectly. If necessary, you can select Convert to Routine or Convert to PRN. This keeps the pharmacy data but updates the scheduling section to match the selected order type.
3. Schedule Mapping Options: There is a toggle to create a New Schedule or Map to Existing Schedule. You can choose between:

   • New Schedule (default): Creates a new order schedule for the medication. (Often, and especially as you are getting started with your pharmacy connection, you will keep this default). 

   • Map to Existing Schedule: Links the pharmacy order to an existing order in ALIS to avoid duplicates. This option is commonly used when transitioning from another pharmacy integration, or if a medication was previously entered manually. For more information about mapping orders, read this Map New Pharmacy Messages to Existing Orders guide. 

4. View Rx Message: This button displays the original pharmacy message, including data such as the pharmacy technician who entered the order.

Order Information

Required fields in the Order Information and Order Details sections are the Medication Name, Route, and Instructions. All other fields are optional. 

Order Information

Most likely all required and typically pre-populated fields in this section are filled out correctly by the codes ALIS received from the pharmacy. 

Medication Name

Usually fully populated by the pharmacy and should not need editing.

RX NDC

Links the order to the National Drug Code directory and can provide:

• Medication images
• Adverse effect information

This feature requires the ALIS Drug Database to be enabled. Contact your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team if you need further assistance with enablement. 

For more information about the drug database, read this ALIS Drug Database Reference Guide.

Drug Package

This should be automatically populated by the pharmacy information, because it is determined by the NDC number.

Equivalent to

Provides a field for entering a brand name equivalent for generic medications that shows in Pass Meds to help med passers recognize medications.

The equivalent name may or may not be populated by the pharmacy depending on your pharmacy software's capabilities. 

Prescriber (multiple fields)

The pharmacy usually supplies the prescriber information, however certain pharmacy connections may have limitations with prescriber name entry. If accurate, you do not need to make any changes to the below "Update prescriber for this order" section and can leave this toggled to Use Existing. 

If corrections are needed, you can:

• Use Existing to choose a prescriber from Community Contacts.
• Create New to to add a new prescriber contact.

Order Details

This section requires manual setup and cannot be populated with information from the pharmacy codes sent.  

While optional, it is often recommended to utilize this section as it is helpful for improving clarity during medication administration. 

Details entered here are visible on the Pass Meds page, MAR, and Physician Order documents. Some of the features such as Check Vitals, create required fields for entry in Pass Meds.

Goal

This field is not commonly needed, but certain states may require it. Enter the physician's stated goal of the resident taking the medication.

Diagnosis

Displays on Physician Order documents. It is recommended to fill out the relevant diagnosis information, and states require this field.

Physical Description

This field is not commonly needed. Enter the physical description of the medication.

Patch

For patch orders, move the toggle to Yes and type a General Patch Application Location. This will enhance the instructions provided in Pass Meds and create a required field for the med passer to type the patch location. Pass Meds also displays the previous application location and step for the patch. 

Additionally, in the Scheduling & Dosage section you will be able to specifically schedule which administration time is meant for applying, removing, or replacing the patch.

Injection

For injection orders, move the toggle to Yes and type a General Injection Location.  Similar to patches, this requires the med passer to type the injection site and shows med passers the previous injection site in Pass Meds.

Medication Tags

It is recommended to check all that apply to the order. These will display as prominent badges throughout ALIS (e.g., Pass Meds and Manage Orders), and can be used to easily filter all of your orders in reports. 

ALIS provides default options (below), but they can be further customized. Refer to this guide Customizable Medication Tags for instructions. 

• ALIS auto-tags Controlled Substances per the Drug Database. The tag will display as greyed out for applicable orders. Refer to this How are medications automatically tagged as "Controlled"? guide for more information. 
• To auto-tag Psychotropic Orders, settings configuration is required. Refer to this How to set up Psychotropic Auto-Tagging Rules guide for instructions.

Service Level

These options define how the medication is administered:

• Administer Routine is appropriate for most orders under most building licenses, with the exception of buildings in Florida.
• Assistance is an alternative to Administer Routine for Florida licenses.
• Self-Administered is used for residents who administer their own medication. This option allows you to choose whether the order will appear on the MAR document and/or the Med Pass. Common practice is to check Show in MAR, but uncheck Show in Med Pass.
• Third Party has the same options as Self-Administered. Most likely you want the order to show on the MAR, but not in the Med Pass, since third party providers typically do not have access to ALIS and maintain their own MAR tool. 
• Nurse Only is only available if you have Administer selected above. For more information about Nurse-give Only medications, read this Nurse-Only Orders guide.

The default Service Level is Administer Routine, but you can update the default level for your building in Medications Settings. For assistance, contact our ALIS Customer Success Team. 

Check Vitals

Requires med passers to record selected vitals before recording order administration in Pass Meds.

For orders requiring vitals checks, move the toggle to Yes. Then, select the vital type(s) and the Scale Type (No Range, Minimum, Maximum). If you add a range of any kind, it is recommended to add to Administration Instructions a description of what med passers should do if the vital is recorded outside of the range. 

For more information about vitals in ALIS, read this Recording Vitals guide. 

Check Pain Level 

Requires a pain level entry before recording order administration in Pass Meds. Can optionally restrict entry to the PAINAD scale.

• When Check Pain Level is toggled to Yes without any other selections made, the med passer will have the option to select from a range of faces with corresponding levels 0-10 OR use the PAINAD scale to calculate pain level based on non-verbal expressions. Either option populates in the required Pain Level field.
• PAINAD Scale Only: When you move the Check Pain Level toggle to Yes, a PAINAD Scale Only toggle appears to the right. When you select Yes for PAINAD Scale Only, only this calculation option will be available in Pass Meds and Administer PRNs.

Drug Count

Tracks medication quantity for controlled substances.

For orders you wish to track via the Drug Count, toggle this to Yes to add the current quantity of the order or Link to Existing the quantity to another order. For more information about enabling the drug count for an order, read this Enabling medications for the Drug Count guide. 

Note: This toggle is only visible when the Drug Count is enabled in Medications Settings. If the Drug Count tab is not available in Medications settings, contact your Account Manager or our ALIS Customer Success Team for further assistance. 

Route

Defines how the medication is administered (oral, topical, etc.).

This menu is likely to be populated correctly by the pharmacy code sent to ALIS. If not, you can use the dropdown menu to select the appropriate route. 

Instructions

Instructions appear based on your pharmacy's entry in their system. Typically it is advised against to add anything to the text populated here. 

There is a specialty Administration Instructions feature that can be enabled in Medications Settings. This creates a separate text field from the pharmacy sent instructions so you do not have to combine them. Administration Instructions in addition to the pharmacy sent instructions will show in Pass Meds. If you add a vitals check to the order (above), it is recommended to add more instructions here detailing what med passers should do if the resident's vitals are outside of the safe ranges for the order.

Routine Orders: Scheduling & Dosage Section

Routine orders include a Scheduling & Dosage section. Many required fields in this section are commonly filled out accurately by the codes ALIS received from the pharmacy. 

Drug Unit of Measurement

Prepopulates based on how ALIS interprets the pharmacy code. 

Use in the dropdown menu should you need to update it. By far the most common option is TABS, for tablet. Any time you change this field, that the Dose field below will also reflect the change. 

Packaging

The menu options here are Based on Dose (default) and As 1 Packed Unit. This menu affects how orders packaged as partial pills in a bubble package are tracked in the ALIS Drug Count. 

Min. Interval Between Admins (Routine)

It is not necessary to use this for Routine orders because they are scheduled, and therefore maintain a set interval between administrations. However, setting this minimum interval is important for PRNs. 

Track Acetaminophen

Allows you to track how much acetaminophen a resident receives within a 24 hour period.

For applicable orders, toggle this to Yes and enter the MG per unit for that order. In Pass Meds, the med passer will be alerted if the resident is approaching or will exceed the set maximum limit of 3,000mg per 24 hours.

Start Date

Determines when the medication schedule begins and serves as the anchor for certain interval calculations. This date can not be edited once the order is processed, unlike almost everything else on this page.

For intervals such as Every N Days, Every Other Day, Every Other Week, and N Days On / N Days Off, ALIS uses the Start Date as the reference point for setting future administrations. 

Because scheduling is anchored to the Start Date:

• Ensure the date matches when the medication schedule should begin.
• This field cannot be edited after the order is processed, so it should be reviewed carefully.

For most pharmacy integrations, the correct date is automatically populated. If your pharmacy integration is PioneerRx, the Start Date may need to be entered manually. For more information, refer to this Process Pharmacy Orders with PioneerRx guide. 

End Date

When a date is added here, the order will automatically be removed from Pass Meds and Discontinue on this date. This field should remain blank for most orders, however the End Date might apply for orders such as antibiotics or tapering dose orders. 

Interval

Determines which days the medication is scheduled, which is anchored by the Start Date. If you need to change this menu later, it is editable from the Manage Orders page. 

Dosage Type

Almost all orders will be Fixed. Range dosages are rarely used for Assisted Living, and indicate the resident can basically choose the dosage they want within a range you set. 

Sliding Scale is used by some communities mostly for the purpose of administering a specific number of insulin units based on the resident's blood glucose level. For more information about sliding scale orders, read this Sliding scale vitals check on medication orders guide. 

Dose and Time 

Defines how much medication is given at the scheduled time(s) below. 

The unit is determined by the above-mentioned Drug Unit of Measurement field. Select the checkbox "Dose is different per time" if the order is given at multiple times in different amounts.

Time

Defines when the order appears in Pass Meds. Multiple administration times can be added as needed.

To schedule when the medication should be administered, first select one of the four time range options:

• Morning
• Noon
• Evening
• Hour of Sleep

After selecting the range, choose the specific administration time from the available options.

The exact times available within each range are configured in Medications Settings for your community. These settings are typically established during onboarding and are best finalized before your community goes live with the ALIS eMAR.

Important: If your community is already actively using eMAR and you need to adjust these time settings, we recommend contacting your Account Manager or the ALIS Customer Success Team to ensure the changes are made appropriately and do not disrupt existing medication schedules.

To schedule the medication at additional times during the day, click + Add Another Time. 

+ Add Another Schedule

The + Add Another Schedule option creates a separate schedule section for the same order, allowing you to define different instructions, start dates, or end dates.

This feature is typically used for more complex medication orders, such as:

• Alternating dose schedules
• Tapering dose schedules

Do not use this option simply to add another administration time for a standard medication order. Instead, use + Add Another Time within the existing schedule. Refer to these How to enter a tapering dose medication and How to enter an alternating dose medication guides for more information.  

PRN Orders: Administration & Dosage

PRN orders use Administration & Dosage instead of a scheduled time section. While not required, it is highly recommended that you set these optional fields for safer medication administration and thorough documentation.  

Recommended fields for PRN include:

Min. Interval Between Admins (PRN)

Defines the minimum safe time between doses.

You can select 30 minute increments up to 72 hours. When administering the order, it will display the 'WAIT' tag if it is too soon to give the order based on the time you select in this menu. 

Max. Admins. in 24 Hours

Limits the number of doses allowed within a 24-hour period.

This field only calculates the number of times an order is recorded as passed in ALIS within a 24 hour period. It is a good idea to use the Min. Interval Between Admins. menu together with the Max. Admins. in 24 Hours menu (e.g., if an order can be given every 2 hours, but only a maximum of four times per day).

Check and Record Outcome

Requires staff to document the medication outcome after a selected time period. This is important to set if you are tracking the outcomes of administering PRN orders. 

For most orders it is appropriate to select 1 hour, but some medications may take effect very quickly and others after several hours. For the time length you select here, ALIS requires an outcome entry. If the outcome time length expires, the PRN outcome will be considered overdue. For more information, refer to this Record PRNs and PRN Outcomes guide.

Med Pass Scheduling Information

It is most common that you should not change this section. Unless advised by your Onboarding or Account Manager, do not update the fields here.

Process the Order

Once all required fields are completed:

1. Review the order details.
2. Click Process Order.

If any required fields are missing, ALIS will highlight them in red. Once processed, the medication appears on the resident’s MAR and Pass Meds schedule.

If you scheduled the order for the recent past and you want it to display on the Pass Meds page, read this How to add meds scheduled for the recent past to Pass Meds article for more information.

Related articles:

• How to Process Incoming Resident Messages
• Pharmacy Connection Reference Guide
• Map New Pharmacy Messages to Existing Orders
• Customize Med Tags 

For more assistance: 888.404.ALIS (2547)  |  support@go-alis.com