Care Settings

Updated April 21, 2026 21:50
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Care Settings are managed at the community level and control how care tasks are scheduled, recorded, and tracked in ALIS. These settings determine things such as what Care Items (tasks) are available, how Care Lists and shifts are structured, and what documentation requirements caregivers must complete when recording care.

Access Care Settings

Many of these settings are configured during onboarding, and the best results are typically achieved when working with the ALIS team to ensure the setup aligns with your community’s workflows. However, users with Administrator security roles can access and update Care Settings as needed.

To access Care Settings:

Click Settings in the top-right corner of ALIS.
Select Care.

General Tab

The General tab controls overall care documentation behavior and scheduling options.

Schedule

The Schedule setting displays the cycle length of your Care Planning Master Schedule.

This affects a very small amount of ALIS users as it is primarily used by communities that assign specific staff members to Care Lists on a recurring schedule. If this feature has not yet been activated, select your preferred cycle length and click Activate.

Care Planning Options

Assign care lists to specific staff

When enabled, Care Lists can be assigned to specific staff members on the Master Schedule or Point-in-time Schedule.

Allow staff to view and record care assigned to other caregivers

Controls whether caregivers can access work assigned to other staff members.

Enabled: Any caregiver can view and record care on assigned Care Lists.
Disabled: Only the assigned caregiver can view or record care for that list.

Unassigned Care Lists remain visible to everyone.

Display the Time Remaining for each Care List on the Care Tracking page

Displays the total estimated time remaining for all incomplete Care Items on a Care List within the Care Tracking page to help caregivers manage workload during a shift.

The time shown here is based on an Estimated Time set to >0 minutes in Care Items settings. The Time Remaining decreases by each task's estimated time for completion when care is recorded.

Time Taken is required on the Record Care page

When enabled, caregivers must enter the amount of time spent completing each Care Item before recording it.

Chart Care Start/Stop Time

Requires caregivers to record the exact start and end time of a care task before completing documentation.

Note: This is often used by organizations that must report exact service times for state or Medicaid funding.

Display Care Item Estimated Time on the Record Care page

Shows the estimated time to complete a Care Item while caregivers record their work.

Display option to create an observation when care plan is published

When enabled, staff will see the option to create an Observation each time a resident’s Care Plan is published.
This can help notify staff when Care Lists change.

Allow staff to float care to the next day

Allows caregivers to reschedule a Care Item 24 hours later using the Float option in Care Tracking. For example, if a resident refuses a shower, staff can float the task and attempt it the next day.

Floated tasks appear in the Recorded Care report as rescheduled.

Allow staff to record PRN care on the Record Care page

Displays the Record PRN Care option on the Record Care page. PRN Care allows caregivers to document unscheduled tasks or services provided outside the resident’s Care Plan.

Display Contacts Domain on Assessment PDFs

Controls whether the Contacts section appears on Evaluation and Service Plan PDFs.

Enabled: Includes the Contacts section and resident contact information on all generated Evaluation and Service Plan PDFs.
Disabled (default): Removes the Contacts section from all exported PDFs.

This setting only impacts generated documents. The Contacts section will always remain visible within the interactive evaluation experience.

Display Health Profile on Evaluations and Service Plans

Controls whether the Health Profile section appears in Evaluations and Service Plans.

Enabled (default): Displays the Health Profile as the first page of the evaluation and includes it on all generated Evaluation and Service Plan PDFs.
Disabled: Removes the entire Health Profile cover page from both the interactive evaluation experience and all exported PDFs.

Allow Care Recording in Previous Shifts

Communities can control whether caregivers are allowed to record or edit care documentation for previous days. By default, caregivers can record care in the current shift, the next shift, the shift immediately before the current shift.

Staff cannot record or edit care from yesterday or earlier unless one of the following is true:

The staff member has the View and Record All Care security role permission
The Allow Care Recording in Previous Shifts setting is enabled

Filled Care Tracking Disclaimer

Configure a disclaimer to display at the bottom of all filled out Care Tracking sheets. This disclaimer applies to all Care Programs.

Care Programs

By default, every community has one program called Care.

Additional Care Programs can be created if your community needs to track separate categories of tasks, such as:

Nursing-only tasks
Housekeeping tasks
Therapy services
Activities

Additional programs appear as separate tabs in Care Settings, and each Care Program maintains its own Care Items and Care Lists.

Care Shifts

These settings are typically configured during onboarding.

Care Shifts define:

The number of shifts per day
The start time for each shift

If your shift structure changes, contact your Account Manager or the ALIS Customer Success Team to update them.

Care tab

The Care tab is where administrators manage the tasks and lists caregivers use when documenting care. These settings determine what appears on the Care Tracking page.

If you manage multiple communities, your Account Manager or ALIS Customer Success Team team can copy Care Items and Care Lists between communities.

Care Program Categories and Care Items

Care Items are grouped into Categories to make them easier to locate when building Care Plans or recording PRN care.

Care Items are the individual tasks caregivers record, such as:

Bathing Assistance
Medication reminders
Dining Assistance

Use the Expand All filter to view all Care Items within each category.

Administrators can edit Care Items individually or in bulk using the checkboxes in the table.

Care Items settings

Care Items settings can be viewed when adding or editing a Care Item.

Name

Each Care Item name must be unique.

Disabled items cannot share the same name as active items. Use the Show Disabled filter if you suspect duplicates exist.

Assessment Care Identifier

These identifiers connect Care Items with the integrated Resident Evaluation Tool or Service Plans. Because they affect automated care planning workflows, it is recommended to configure these with the ALIS team.

Contact your Account Manager or the ALIS Customer Success Team for assistance.

Reporting Label

These labels on the Care Items allow them to pull into categories on various ALIS HQ Dashboards.

For more information about which Reporting Labels are needed to populate specific ALIS HQ Dashboards, contact your Account Manager.

Assistance Level

This field supports care tasking integrations that need to display and organize tasks by assistance level. The options displayed here are configured in the Assistance Levels settings at the bottom of the page.

Contact your Account Manager or the ALIS Customer Success Team for more information.

Compliance Document

If a Care Item (task) requires form completion in addition to standard recorded care documentation, select an item from this dropdown menu.

Compliance options display here only when they have been configured for Care Tracking in your Compliance Settings.

Possible Outcomes

Outcomes allow caregivers to document the result of a Care Item.

Common options include:

Completed / Not Completed
Yes / No

Custom outcomes can also be configured to track things like refused care, percentages completed, or resident-specific goal progress. For instructions on how to configure custom outcomes, refer to this guide: Set up Custom Outcomes for Care Items.

Estimated Time

Estimated Time defines the default expected duration of the task. This value is required when creating a Care Item but can be adjusted later for individual residents.

Depending on settings, this estimate may display on:

The Care Tracking page
The Record Care page
Both or neither

Show last outcomes during care tracking

Displays the last five recorded outcomes directly on the Record Care page.

Caregivers can also open a report showing the last 30 recorded instances of the Care Item.

Allow broadcasting to Observations

Allows caregivers to create an Observation based on the outcome of a Care Item. This helps ensure important care information is shared with the broader care team.

Hide Care Times

Allows Care Items to be scheduled without a specific time, requiring only a shift and Care List.

Allow Clinical staff to edit frequency/add or remove from Care Plan

These settings allow you to control whether staff can update scheduling as set in the Care Plan and/or whether or not the specific Care Item can be added or removed from a published Care Plan.

If the toggle is set to No, administrators with a specific security role permission can still override this restriction.

Instructions

Instructions provide guidance for caregivers on how to complete the task.

These instructions can be:

Set as a default in Care Item Settings, OR
Customized for individual residents within their unique Care Plan

Care Notes

Determines whether a Notes field is visible when recording care, and if it is required.

Options include:

None (default)
Optional
Required
Required No/Not Complete

Notes can provide helpful context when reviewing the Recorded Care report.

Care Program Lists

Care Lists are the assignment lists caregivers select when documenting their work during a shift. Every scheduled Care Item must be assigned to a Care List.

When caregivers open Care Tracking, they begin by selecting the Care List they are responsible for.

It may be possible that you need to move a resident's Care Items to a different Care List. For instructions on how to complete this action, refer to this guide: Move Care Items to a different Care List.

Assistance Levels

This settings table dictates which Assistance Level options are available to associate with specific Care Items. These settings support care tasking integrations that need to display and organize tasks by assistance level.