When it comes to managing inmate healthcare, there’s no room for guesswork. Knowing exactly what medications are due, when they’re due, and who they’re for isn’t just about staying organized—it’s about protecting inmate health and welfare, supporting staff, and reducing your facility’s risk of claims related to missed or improper care.
Whether you’re creating an inmate medication order from scratch or reviewing a list of either upcoming or late doses, having a clear, streamlined process of inmate medication management makes all the difference, especially in facilities where teams are balancing multiple responsibilities throughout the day.
In this blog, we’ll walk through how to create a medication order in Medication Manager for Command Cloud, as well as where to locate existing orders so you can effectively review and prioritize them with confidence.
The first step in creating a medication order is creating the medication itself within Command Cloud. While Medication Manager already provides hundreds of pre-populated commonly used medications, your facility may need a medication or dosage that falls outside this default list. If you experience this dilemma, know that you can easily include that medication in your system using Command Cloud’s web component, Mission Command.
Once logged into Mission Command and located on the Medication Manager dashboard, you can add a new medication by clicking your profile drop-down menu in the top-right corner and selecting Manage Medications. Access to these administration pages is restricted to users with specific permissions, ensuring that only authorized personnel can add new medications. Once in Manage Medications, you will be taken to a dashboard broken down into tabs that must be updated before creating a medication:
Parent Medications: Add new medication names by clicking Create a Parent Medication and entering the name.
Medical Restrictions: Add any restrictions, including the type (e.g., ibuprofen allergy) and additional notes.
Units: Create the required unit symbol (e.g., mg) and include a description if needed.
Routes: Add the methods by which a medication can be administered (e.g., oral, topical)
Types: Create medication forms, including capsules, tablets, ointments, and other types.
Once these new values are created, switch to the Medications tab and click Create a Medication, then complete the appropriate fields, including: Parent Medication, Medication Dose, Medication Unit, Medication Route, Medication Type, Controlled Substance, OTC, Require Signature, Elapsed Time (the recommended time between doses), Before Delivery Time (how many hours before the scheduled time the medication can be administered and appears Due), After Delivery Time (how many hours after the scheduled time the medication can be administered before appearing Late), Max Order Length, and Audit Inventory Frequency.
You can then choose Save or Save & Duplicate. The Save option will complete the process, while the Save & Duplicate option makes it quick and easy to create copies of medications with slight modifications.
Yes, medications can be deactivated. Before deactivating a medication, ensure that all associated inventory counts have been adjusted to zero and deactivated, and active medication orders have been deactivated. To improve efficiency, use the medication ID to locate all related medication orders. If a medication displays an In Use action button, it means the medication is tied to active inventory and/or medication orders. Hovering over the In Use button will display an informational pop-up instructing the user to deactivate the related medication orders and inventory.
Once all associated medication orders and inventory have been deactivated, the Deactivate action button will appear.
Once the medication has been created, you’re ready to create a medication order. Setting up an inmate medication order in Command Cloud is a straightforward process that involves a series of text fields and drop-down menus to capture all required information.
Start by navigating to the Medication Manager dashboard from the left-hand control panel. When you open it, you’ll land on the default tab, Medication Orders—which, conveniently, is exactly where you need to be.
To create the order, click “Create a Medication Order.” From there, you’ll be prompted to complete several fields, including:
Additional notes—such as relevant information about the inmate or staff administering the medication—can also be added to the order in the Special Instructions box. The special instructions will appear in XR when administering the medication. This ensures that all critical details are documented and easily accessible.
In smaller facilities where staffing may be limited, correctional officers often handle the entire medication process, from order entry to distribution. Having key notes readily available helps ensure safe, consistent, and informed medication administration.
When creating a Medication Order, you can easily schedule the exact time an inmate's medication should be administered. Start by selecting the order’s start date and how often it should be given. You can then adjust the time window before and after the scheduled dose (which defaults to one hour) to fit your facility’s workflow. Once the start date and frequency are set, additional fields will populate, allowing you to further refine the schedule and ensure the most accurate medication order setup.
If needed, you can define specific administration times and create a recurring schedule that begins on the selected start date. You also have the option to add an end date so the order automatically expires when appropriate. And for any additional details or clarification, use the Special Instructions field to include relevant notes.
Medication administrators can access upcoming, late, and over-the-counter (OTC) medication orders from any device, anywhere in the facility, using both Mission Command and Mobile Command XR. Whether you’re at a workstation or on the move, the information you need is always close at hand.
In Mission Command, the Medication Orders tab within the Medication Manager dashboard brings all active medication orders into one clear, centralized view. From there, it’s easy to customize what you’re seeing. You can adjust the date range to focus on a specific time period or toggle on APPLY HOME LOCATION FILTERS to display only the medication orders for the areas of the facility you’re responsible for during that shift.
At the top of the dashboard, three summary boxes give you a quick snapshot of what needs attention—showing the total number of active medication orders, how many are due, and how many are late. Below that, a detailed table lists each medication order. Every column can be sorted, making it simple to organize the information in a way that fits your workflow. When you need more detail, just click the white VIEW button in the Action column to open a complete breakdown of that specific order.
For corrections staff on the go, medication orders can also be viewed and completed in the Medication Manager module within Mobile Command XR, Command Cloud’s mobile inmate tracking system. Inside the module, orders are organized into three tabs—Due, Late, and OTC—so you can quickly prioritize tasks. To further support timely administratinon, alerts are sent to designated devices to notify staff of currently due and late medication orders.
This mobility does more than improve visibility. It allows staff to capture medication administration right at the point of care, helping ensure doses are given on time and accurately documented.
Managing inmate medication orders requires clarity, consistency, and accountability at every step. With Medication Manager for Command Cloud, your team has a structured, defensible process for creating medications, building accurate schedules, and monitoring due and late doses in real time.
From initial setup to daily administration, every field and workflow is designed to reduce human error, strengthen clear documentation, and support informed decision-making. By centralizing medication data and making orders easy to create, track, and review, Medication Manager helps facilities increase compliance, enhance operational efficiency, and, most importantly, ensure timely and accurate healthcare for every inmate.