Clinical inquiries. Do standing orders help with chronic disease care and health maintenance in ambulatory practice?

A results are mixed. Studies of standing orders tend to examine their effect on compliance with preventive interventions for chronic disease rather than disease outcomes. In the ambulatory setting, they improve rates of influenza vaccination (strength of recommendation [SOR]: C, consistent cohort studies measuring vaccination rates), pneumococcal vaccination (SOR: C, consistent randomized controlled trials [RCTs] measuring vaccination rates), childhood immunizations (SOR: C, inconsistent RCTs measuring vaccination rates), and mammograms (SOR: C, RCT measuring screening rate). Standing orders don’t improve screening rates for colorectal cancer (SOR: C, RCT measuring screening rate).