How Standing Orders Help Us Deliver Better, Faster Care

At Health Services of North Texas, we’re always looking for ways to improve patient care while reducing strain on our clinical teams. One of the most effective tools we used in 2024? Standing orders.

Standing orders are pre-approved protocols that allow our medical staff—such as nurses, medical assistants, and office teams—to carry out specific tasks without needing direct approval from a provider each time. This helps streamline everyday processes, reduce wait times, and keep patient care moving efficiently.

Thanks to these standing orders, our team was empowered to act proactively in 2024, leading to significant impact across our six health centers:

• 57,000+ calls were answered by our Medical Office team, maintaining a 98% answer rate—ensuring patients got the help they needed, fast.
• 1,000+ new patient intakes were completed with a 97% success rate in Family Practice, helping new patients start their care journey smoothly.
• 16,000+ point-of-care tests were performed without waiting for a provider-prompted order, speeding up diagnosis and treatment.

By putting these protocols in place, we helped our providers focus on what they do best: delivering high-quality, patient-centered care.