How to Set Up the Default Standing Order in ElderSuite

📝 Overview

Default Standing Order holds the center-wide wording that every new physician's standing order can start from. There is one default for the whole center—not a separate template per client—so routine-care and emergency protocols begin from the same agreed text and layout instead of being retyped from scratch.

ElderSuite serves adult day care centers nationwide.

Open it from Nursing Center → Related Activities → Setup Default Standing Order. You can also open the same window from a client's Physician's Standing Order with Configure Default. For a Limited Access sign-in, the Nursing Center link needs the Configure Default Standing Order permission on the employee record.

This is not the per-client Physician's Standing Orders list. That list holds each client's standing orders; this window is the template those new orders can pull from with Use Default. For writing, printing, and Sign & Sync on a client's order, see How to Manage Physician's Standing Orders in ElderSuite.

⚙ How It Works

1. Open Setup Default Standing Order

Open Nursing Center from the ElderSuite main menu. In Related Activities, click Setup Default Standing Order.

If the link is grayed out, the employee does not have Configure Default Standing Order. That permission caption on the employee record differs from the link text on this screen—both refer to the same access. Grant it under Provider Center → Manage Employees (see How to Add Employees and Set Permissions in ElderSuite). After the permission is granted, it can take effect within a few minutes on the next screen opened, or immediately after signing out and back in.

While writing a client's standing order, click Configure Default on that window's toolbar to open the same Default Standing Order window without leaving the record. If Default Standing Order is already open, ElderSuite brings it forward instead of opening a second copy. The Nursing Center stays open behind it.

Report Center's standing-order entry opens the client standing-orders list, not this default window.

2. Edit the Default Wording

The window is one rich-text editing area under four toolbars. There is no client list, no add or delete command, and no record navigator—opening it always shows and edits the same center-wide default.

Use the Clipboard, Font, and Paragraph toolbars to format the text. Bold, italic, underline, lists, indents, alignment, colors, and related formatting stay with the wording when you save and when staff later click Use Default on a client's standing order.

Paste or Paste Special from the Clipboard toolbar when you bring text in from elsewhere. Clear Formatting on the Font toolbar strips character formatting back to plain text when you need a clean start.

Nothing is copied into a client's standing order automatically. Staff pull the default in on demand with Use Default, which also places the selected client's name at the top of that copy.

3. Click Save & Close

Click Save & Close to store the default and close the window. That is the only command that saves. Nothing is stored as you type, and there is no separate Save that leaves the window open.

If a Physician's Standing Order window is open at the same time, saving the default merges the new wording into that window so its Use Default action picks it up right away—without rewriting the standing-order text already on screen. Changing the default does not rewrite standing orders already written for clients.

If the save fails, the window stays open so the text is not lost. Closing with the window's close control (or answering no to an unsaved-changes question when one appears) returns you to whatever was underneath; the Nursing Center remains open. Opening Default Standing Order again reloads the wording currently stored for the center.

4. Print When You Need a Paper Copy

Click Print when you want a paper copy for review or for a physician's signature. ElderSuite opens the printer chooser with only the choice of printer—page range, selection, and print-to-file options are turned off so the default is printed whole. The print job is named Default Standing Order.

Print does not save. Unsaved edits print as they appear on screen, but you still need Save & Close to keep them.

✅ Important Limitations

This window is the center-wide template. It is not Physician's Standing Orders, and it is not Form 3055.

Editing the default changes only what future copies can start from. Standing orders already written for clients are left as they are.

The default is never applied automatically. A nurse must click Use Default on the client's Physician's Standing Order to copy it in.

Save & Close is the only save. Printing does not store changes.

There is no required-content check. An empty default can be saved, so proofread before you store it.

If the editing area is completely empty when you close the window, ElderSuite does not offer an unsaved-changes prompt—clearing the text and closing discards that clearing.

A save overwrites the single default record. ElderSuite does not keep a version history of earlier default wording—print or copy the current text first if you may need it back.

Find, Replace, Open, and import commands are not on this window's toolbars. Paste or Paste Special is how outside text comes in.

For Limited Access, the Nursing Center Setup Default Standing Order link stays disabled until Configure Default Standing Order is granted on the employee record.

⚠ Printing Does Not Save

Print sends a detached copy of the wording to the printer. It does not write the default to ElderSuite.

After you print—or if you close without saving—click Save & Close when you are ready to store the revised default. Until then, the center still holds the last saved wording.

💡 Need More Help?

For step-by-step assistance, click Ask Eddie from within ElderSuite.