Reusing Protocol Recommendations

In this article:

• Saving Recommendations
• Viewing and Managing Your Saved Recommendations
• Understanding Labels vs. Client-Facing Content
• Organizing Your Recommendation Library
• Editing Saved Recommendations
• Using Saved Recommendations in Protocols
• Sharing and Collaborating with Your Team
• Managing Saved Recommendations

Saving Recommendations

You can save any recommendation from a protocol or protocol template to reuse it later. This is especially helpful for recommendations you prescribe frequently, like your go-to probiotic protocol or standard stress management practices.

To save a recommendation:

1. Go to any recommendation within a protocol template or draft.
    
2. Click the Save recommendation button.
   
    

3. In the pop-up window, add a descriptive Label – this is the internal organizational name that helps you find this recommendation later in your library.
   
    
4. Add Tags to categorize your recommendation (for example, "Weight Loss," "Gut Health," or "Sleep Support"). Tags make it easy to filter and find recommendations when you need them.
    

5. Click Save.

📍 Note: You can only save recommendations from protocol templates or unpublished protocol drafts. Published client protocols are read-only and cannot be used to create saved recommendations, unless duplicated as a draft.

Viewing and Managing Your Saved Recommendations

Your saved recommendations live in a centralized library where you can view, organize, and maintain them over time.

To access your saved recommendations:

Go to My Practice > Protocol Templates > Recommendations tab.

From here, you can search through your recommendations using the search bar at the top of the list, or use the practitioner dropdown menu to filter by team member if you're working in a multi-practitioner account.

💡 Tip: If you work with a team, you may access saved recommendations created by your colleagues based on your Team Member Access permissions and their individual sharing settings.

Understanding Labels vs. Client-Facing Content

Saved recommendations have two distinct layers of information, and understanding the difference will help you manage your library more effectively:

Label (Practitioner-facing): This is your internal organizational name that appears in your Recommendations library list. It's what you see when browsing or searching for saved recommendations to add to protocols. Think of it as your filing system – make labels descriptive enough that you'll recognize what the recommendation contains at a glance.

Description and Details (Client-facing): This is the actual recommendation content your clients will see in their protocols – the specific food items, supplement instructions, lifestyle practices, and explanations that guide their care.

When you're viewing your Recommendations library, you're seeing the labels and tags. When you click Edit, you're diving into the client-facing content. This two-layer system keeps your organizational structure separate from the clinical content you deliver to clients.

Organizing Your Recommendation Library

As your saved recommendations library grows, Practice Better offers several ways to keep everything organized and easy to find.

Manually Arranging Your Recommendations

You can customize the order of your saved recommendations to keep your most frequently used items at the top of your list.

To rearrange your recommendations:

1. Go to My Practice > Protocol Templates > Recommendations tab.
    
2. Click the Change Order button in the top-right corner.
   
    

3. Drag and drop recommendations into your preferred order using the handle icons on the left side of each recommendation.
   
    

4. Click Done when finished.

Editing Saved Recommendations

As your protocols evolve, you can update your saved recommendations to reflect new research, product changes, or refined approaches. Practice Better uses a two-step editing process that keeps your organizational structure separate from your clinical content.

Editing the Full Recommendation

When you need to update the clinical content that your clients will see, you'll work through both the description and the organizational details.

To edit a saved recommendation's content:

1. Go to My Practice > Protocol Templates > Recommendations tab.
    
2. Click the Edit button on the recommendation you want to modify.
   
    

3. This opens the recommendation editing page where you can update all the client-facing details: the recommendation description, examples, explanations, and clinical instructions.
    

4. Click Save in the top-right corner when you've finished updating the clinical content.
   
    
5. A pop-up will appear where you can update the Label and Tags for organizational purposes.
   
    

6. Click Save to confirm all your changes.

This two-step process ensures you can update both what clients see and how you organize your library in one editing session.

Quick Edits for Organization Only

Sometimes you just need to rename a recommendation or update its tags without touching the clinical content. Practice Better offers a shortcut for these organizational changes.

To edit only the label and tags:

1. Go to My Practice > Protocol Templates > Recommendations tab.
    
2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the recommendation.
    
3. Select Edit title and tags.
   
    

4. Update the label and tags in the pop-up window.
   
    
5. Click Save.

This shortcut skips the description editing page entirely, saving you time when you're just refining your organizational system.

Additional Management Options

The More Options menu also provides these helpful actions:

• Duplicate – Create a copy of the recommendation, which is useful when you want to save variations of the same supplement with different dosing instructions or quantities.
• Manage sharing – Control which team members can view and use this recommendation.
• Transfer ownership – Assign the recommendation to another practitioner on your team.
• Delete – Remove the recommendation from your library.

Understanding How Edits Affect Existing Protocols

When you edit a saved recommendation, Published client protocols and Protocol templates that include the saved recommendation remain unchanged. Whatever was in the protocol or template at the time you published or last saved it will stay exactly as it was, protecting the integrity of active client care plans and template drafts.

Think of saved recommendations as templates themselves – when you add one to a protocol and then customize it for that specific client, you're creating an independent copy. Changes to that protocol-specific recommendation won't affect your saved recommendation library.

Using Saved Recommendations in Protocols

Adding saved recommendations to a protocol is designed to be quick and efficient, letting you build comprehensive protocols in minutes rather than hours.

To add saved recommendations to a protocol:

1. Open a new or existing protocol.
    
2. Click the red Fast Action button in the bottom-right corner.
    
3. Select Add saved recommendations from the list.
   
    

4. Use the search box at the top to filter recommendations by label, or click the All tags button to filter by specific tags, making it easy to find all recommendations related to a particular health concern.
   
    
5. Check the box beside each recommendation you want to add. You can add multiple recommendations at once.
   
    
6. Click Add (X) item to insert your selections into the protocol.

✅ All set! Your recommendations are now part of the protocol and can be customized for this specific client without affecting the saved version in your library.

Sharing and Collaborating with Your Team

If your Practice Better account includes multiple practitioners, saved recommendations can be shared across your team to maintain consistency while respecting individual practice approaches.

Managing Sharing Settings

You can control who sees specific saved recommendations through the sharing settings.

To manage sharing for a saved recommendation:

1. Go to My Practice > Protocol Templates > Recommendations tab.
    
2. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to the recommendation.
    
3. Select Manage sharing.
   
    
4. Adjust which team members can access this recommendation.
   

This granular control lets you keep experimental or highly personalized protocols private while sharing your practice's core recommendations widely.

Transferring Ownership

When team members leave or practice responsibilities shift, you can transfer ownership of saved recommendations to other practitioners.

To transfer ownership:

1. Click the More Options menu (3 dots) near the top-right of the Recommendations page.
   
2. Select Transfer ownership.
    

3. Choose the team member who should receive ownership.
   

When transferred, the receiving team member will see the saved recommendation in their list by default and can manage its settings going forward.

💡 Tip: When one team member updates a shared saved recommendation, those changes appear in protocol templates for everyone who has access – making it easy to implement practice-wide updates to supplement protocols or care approaches.

Managing Saved Recommendations

To help you maintain your recommendation library with confidence, here's how different scenarios work:

Duplicating saved recommendations: Use the Duplicate option in the More Options menu when you want to create variations of the same recommendation with different instructions. This is particularly helpful for supplements where you might prescribe different doses or timing for different clinical situations.

Duplicating protocol templates: When you duplicate a protocol template, all saved recommendations included in that template come along with it.

Deleting saved recommendations: You'll need to delete saved recommendations one at a time. There isn't currently a bulk delete option, so this encourages thoughtful curation of your library.

Exporting Your Saved Recommendations

While there isn't a direct export option for your saved recommendations library, you can create a backup using this helpful workaround:

1. Create a new protocol template.
    
2. Add all your saved recommendations to this template using the Fast Action button.
    
3. Publish the protocol for a test client in your account.
    
4. Export the published protocol as a PDF, which now contains all your saved recommendations in one document.

This exported PDF serves as a reference guide or backup of your recommendation library at that point in time.

💡 Tip: Think of saved recommendations as your à la carte buffet of care options, while protocol templates are the empty plates that help you organize those options into complete care plans. Both work together to make your protocol creation process more efficient and consistent.

Need help building your first protocol? Your saved recommendations are just one piece of Practice Better's comprehensive protocol system. Our support team is here to help you create efficient workflows that save you time while delivering excellent client care.