IV Protocols and Prescriber Sign-Off

A protocol is a reusable formulation - a diluent, a set of components and their doses - that can be applied to a bag in one click. Protocols are built once and then used every day, so they carry a deliberate safeguard: a protocol cannot be made active until a prescriber signs it.

Open the protocol library:

• In OfficePro, open ChartPro admin.
• Click IV Protocols.

Import a protocol: use Import IV Protocols to copy a published formulation into the practice. Importing also creates any component products and service codes the practice does not already have, and never overwrites something you have already set up. An imported protocol arrives inactive and is not chartable yet.

Map every component to a product: open the protocol and check each row has a product selected. A row left unmapped is shown highlighted and marked bills nothing, moves no stock - it will still appear in the note as documentation, but it produces no charge and no inventory movement.

Sign the formulation: at the top of the protocol is a Prescriber sign-off panel. A provider reads the statement, ticks the box and clicks Sign this formulation. Until that happens, the Active field offers only No - not chartable and shows needs sign-off.

• Only a user account linked to an active provider record can sign. Other staff can build and edit a protocol, but the panel tells them they cannot sign it.
• The signature records the provider's name, credential, licence and NPI as they were on the day of signing, along with the exact wording agreed to.

What withdraws a signature: the signature covers the formulation - the components, their doses and the diluent. Changing any of those withdraws it, and the protocol is deactivated on save with a message saying why. It has to be reviewed and signed again.

Renaming a protocol, editing its description, reordering the rows or changing its notes does not void the signature. This is intentional: the sign-off is about what goes into the patient, not about the paperwork around it.

Where library protocols come from: protocols supplied with the software are proposals, not recommendations. Only formulations with a named clinical author can be published to practices, and adopting one is a clinical decision made by the prescriber who signs it. Review the components and doses against your own standards before signing - do not assume a supplied number is correct for your patients.

Building one from scratch: click + Add component to add rows, set the diluent and its volume, and watch the Preview panel update the osmolarity and total volume as you type. A protocol you author yourself follows exactly the same sign-off rule.