Care Settings

Care Settings are managed at the community level. These dictate all the details of what tasks can be scheduled, what shifts and care lists are available in each community, and more.

These are typically managed during onboarding, and you will achieve the best results from the beginning if you work with the ALIS team!

Click the Settings link at the top right corner of your ALIS screen, and click Care. Only users with Administrator roles can access this.

General settings tab:

Schedule

This will display the cycle length of your Care Planning Master Schedule. This affects a very small amount of ALIS users who need to assign specific staff to Care Lists on a recurring basis. If this has not yet been activated, select the cycle length you prefer, and click Activate.

Care Planning Options

• Assign care lists to specific staff: with this enabled, you'll be able to assign Care Lists to specific staff members on the Master Schedule and the Point-in-time Schedule.
• Allow staff to view and record care assigned to other caregivers: with this enabled, any Care List assigned to a specific staff member can only be viewed and recorded by that specific person. Other staff members will not be able to see it. However, if a Care List is unassigned, everyone can still see and record it.
• Display the Time Remaining for each Care List on the Care Tracking page: when enabled, staff will see the sum of all estimated time to complete each unrecorded task on the Care Lists on the Care Tracking page.
• Time Taken is required on the Record Care page: Enable this to require staff to type the amount of time taken on each Care Item before they can record their work.
• Chart Care Start/Stop Time: This may be helpful for organizations that operate with a lot of state or Medicaid funding, and are required to report exact times that care services begin and end. Enable this to require staff to type the time they started and the time they ended their work on each Care Item before they can click Record.
• Display Care Item Estimated Time on the Record Care page: when enabled, staff will see the estimated amount of time to complete Care Items while they record their work.
• Display option to create an observation when care plan is published: Enable this for the option to create an Observation each time you Publish a resident's Care Plan. It maybe helpful to create these observations so that staff are aware of potential changes to the Care Lists.
• Allow staff to float care to the next day: This allows staff to click Float for any Care Item, which reschedules it to 24 hours in the future. This is a helpful feature if a resident refuses a shower Care Item and staff want to try again the next day. Any "floated" care will show on the Recorded Care report as rescheduled.
• Allow staff to record PRN care on the Record Care page: Keep this enabled to make the Record PRN Care button available on the Record Care page. If your organization can track care tasks outside of a resident's Care Plan, it is a good idea to encourage staff to Record PRN Care to document any extra services they have provided. To learn more about PRN Care, read this article: How to Record PRN Care

Care Programs

By default, you have one program labeled "Care". This is the only program that many communities may need. If you want to track separate programs for different types of tasks, you can create additional Care Programs that will have their own lists of Care Item tasks and Care Lists. Examples may be Nurse-Only or Housekeeping programs.

Additional Care Programs will have their own tabs at the top of the Care Settings page where you can manage the Care Items and Care Lists.

Care Shifts

This is where your onboarding manager or ALIS Support can change the number of shifts you have per day and the start times of each shift. Contact us to update the shifts!

Care tab:

This is where you can manage the bank of tasks and care lists for your staff to document ADLs and other tasks on the Care Tracking page. If you have these set up for one community, contact your ALIS onboarding manager or ALIS Support to easily copy these to other communities you may manage.

Care Program Categories and Care Items

Care Items are the tasks available for scheduling and recording care. These are organized into categories to make them easier to find when you are adding them to resident Care Plans, or if you are recording PRN Care.

In the filters, click Expand All to view all Care Items within the categories. This table shows the name of each Care Item as well as settings for Care Identifiers, Outcomes, Times Hidden or Not Hidden, Estimated Time to complete, and Notes settings. You can Edit each Care Item individually or in bulk using the checkboxes to the left of the items and select the Bulk Edit button at the top of the table.

Care Items settings

• Name must be unique, and you may not have a disabled item with the same name. If you suspect you may have a redundant disabled item, click the Show Disabled checkbox in the filters.
• Category is the group name of the Care Item. To add more Categories, click the +Add Category button at the top left of the table.
• Assessment Care Identifier: most likely these will be set for you by your onboarding manager when they are configuring your electronic evaluation. This allows for needs triggered on your Service Plans to suggest a specific Care Item for the Care Plan. These tie in with settings not covered in this guide, and it is recommended to work with your ALIS team to set up these identifiers!
• Reporting Label: These labels on the Care Items allow them to pull into categories on the Care Charting ALIS HQ Dashboard. To learn more about ALIS HQ Dashboards, read this article: ALIS HQ Reference Guide
• Possible Outcomes are the outcome options available for staff when they record their work for a Care Item. Most Care Items have the Completed/Not Completed options, but you can also set up Custom Options which allow staff to select your custom outcomes from a menu. Custom Options are very useful if staff need to record percentages, whether residents refuse care, or if they are recording the outcomes of more nuanced resident goals. Contact your ALIS team to set up Custom Options. You also have the option to set outcomes to Yes/No.
• Estimated Time is a required field that you set here as the default for each time this Care Item is added to a Care Plan going forward, but you can edit this for individual residents. Depending on your settings in the General settings tab, these estimates may display on the Care Tracking page, the Record Care page, or neither.
• Show last outcomes during care tracking will display in a list on the Record Care page the outcomes of the last five scheduled times. By default, staff can click a link to view a document showing the last 30 recorded times for all Care Items, but this setting displays the most recent outcomes more prominently.
• Allow broadcasting to Observations gives staff a checkbox to create an Observation based on the outcome of the Care Item. They have the option to select the Observation Type and if the Observation is Critical. Using this is a good way to make sure any important care details are communicated across your team in the Observation Center. To learn more about ALIS Observations, read this article: Guide to Observations
• Hide Care Times allows you to schedule the Care Item with no specific time. You only have to select the appropriate shift and Care List for the task.
• Instructions is the most important information you can include for the Care Items. You can create a general set of instructions in the settings, and customize this for individual residents when you are updating a resident's Care Plan.
• Allow Notes gives you the option to Allow, Not Allow, or Require notes on this Care Item. Notes can be very useful to review in the Recorded Care report to see additional details Caregivers provided.

Care Program Lists

The Care Lists refer to assignment lists within your daily shifts. Each scheduled Care Item must be assigned to a specific Care List. When Caregivers go to Care Tracking to document their work, they first select a Care List to work on. 

These can be assigned to specific staff if you are using Master Schedule and Point-in-time Schedule, but most communities do very well without assigning the lists to specific staff. 

The items on a Care List are meant to represent what a single Caregiver can accomplish during their shift.

Additional Care Program tabs:

Many communities do not need additional Care Programs, but if you create additional Care Programs for your community, they will display as their own tabs to the right of the Care tab. These pages are identical to the settings you have available for the Care program, with the ability to set program-specific Care Items and Care Lists.

Related Articles:

Recording Care

Enhanced Care Tracking

How to Set Up Hidden Care Times

How to Review a Care Plan