Workflow Guidance

Workflow Guidance lets you build and run visual step-by-step process workflows for clinical and administrative tasks. Workflows are flowcharts — sequences of instructions, decision points, and outcomes — that guide staff through structured processes such as handling a discharge summary, processing a clinic letter, or triaging an incoming task. Each workflow is displayed as an interactive canvas that staff navigate in real time.

Where the Practice Handbook stores static policies and reference information, Workflow Guidance handles processes that require decision-making: if this, then that.

The staff experience

Staff access Workflow Guidance from the main navigation. The landing page is headed “What type of document are you processing?” with the subtitle “Choose a workflow below to see the exact steps to follow.”

Workflows are grouped into two sections:

• Common documents (daily) — workflows used regularly by most staff, shown first
• Less common / specialist — workflows for less frequent tasks or specific sub-processes

Each workflow card shows the workflow name, a short description, and a Start workflow button. Cards for Global templates that haven’t yet been customised also show a Customise workflow button. Cards for surgery-customised or surgery-created workflows show only Start workflow.

Clicking Start workflow navigates directly to the workflow canvas. There is no intermediate dialog — the canvas opens immediately in Viewing mode.

A Management section at the bottom of the landing page (visible to admins only) provides links to Manage Templates, Engagement, and Node styling defaults.

The canvas

The canvas is the staff experience. It shows the full flowchart — all nodes, connections, and outcome labels — and staff follow the diagram as they work through the document or task.

The Details panel on the right is closed by default. Staff interact with the canvas in two main ways:

1. Click any node to select it and bring it into focus on the canvas.
2. Click the “i” button on a node (visible on nodes that have body content) to open the Details panel and read the detailed guidance for that step. The panel shows the node’s type badge, title, and full body text. Click Clear details to return to the default panel state.

The default Details panel state shows a Mode toggle (Viewing / Editing), a prompt to click a node’s “i” button, and a Diagram legend toggle that explains the node shape conventions.

Canvas modes

The canvas has two modes, toggled from the Details panel:

Viewing mode — The standard staff mode. The editing toolbar is hidden. Staff read the flowchart and use the “i” buttons to access node detail. The Details panel is closed by default and can be opened via the “Open details panel” button.

Editing mode — Full edit mode for building or modifying a workflow. The canvas shows an orange border and an “Editing mode active” indicator. The toolbar above the canvas becomes active, showing buttons to add each node type. The Details panel opens automatically showing “Getting started” guidance.

Node types

Workflows are built from five node types.

Instruction

Use for steps where staff need to read, check, or act before continuing. Instruction nodes support detailed body text (checklists, diagnosis codes, guidance steps) visible when staff click the “i” button.

Example: “Code Diagnoses — check that the discharge summary diagnosis matches one of the listed codes and code if appropriate.”

Question

Use when the next action depends on the answer to something. The diamond shape signals a decision point with two or more branching paths.

Example: “GP Actions?” branching Yes / No.

Outcome

Use to mark the end of a workflow path. Outcome nodes show a title and an “Outcome:” sub-line summarising what staff should do with the document. On the canvas, Outcome nodes are labelled END. Outcome nodes support body text accessible via the “i” button.

Example: “Forward to GP — Outcome: forward this document to the GP inbox.”

Panel

Use to group related steps visually, especially in complex workflows where it helps to separate phases (e.g. “Initial Triage”, “Clinical Review”, “Action”). Panels do not affect workflow logic.

Reference

Use for supporting information that staff might need but that isn’t part of the decision flow — for example, a list of referral criteria shown alongside the workflow.

Node options

All node types support:

• Node styling — custom background and text colours, configurable per-node
• STAMP badge — a short badge label displayed on the node in the canvas

Instruction nodes additionally support linked workflows — cross-references to other workflow templates, accessible from the Details panel when that node is selected.

Workflow types and landing sections

Each template has a type that determines which landing section it appears in:

• Primary — appears in “Common documents (daily)”
• Supporting — appears in “Less common / specialist”

Templates also carry a source badge in the Manage Templates table:

• Global — provided centrally
• Customised — a surgery-modified version of a Global template
• No badge — created by the surgery

Creating and editing workflows

Admins manage templates via Manage Templates on the landing page or via the Management section.

To create a new template: click Create workflow…, choose a type (Primary or Supporting), and add a title. The canvas opens in Editing mode.

To edit an existing template: open it and switch to Editing mode from the Details panel. The toolbar shows:

• Add instruction — adds an Instruction node
• Add question — adds a Question node
• Add outcome — adds an Outcome node
• Add panel — adds a Panel container
• Add reference — adds a Reference card

Drag nodes to reposition them on the canvas. Connect nodes by dragging from one node’s output handle to another’s input handle. Hold Shift while dragging to lock movement to a horizontal or vertical axis.

With a node selected in Editing mode, the Details panel shows the node editor where you can set the title, body text, styling, STAMP badge, and (for Instruction nodes) any linked workflows.

To customise a Global template for your surgery: click Customise workflow on the landing page card. This creates a surgery-specific copy that you can edit freely without affecting the global version.

Engagement

The Engagement section (linked from the Management area on the landing page) shows how often each workflow is being used and by which staff members, filterable by time period.

If certain workflows show low engagement, they may not be visible enough — consider their placement in Primary vs Supporting, or whether a link from the Practice Handbook would help.

Related pages

• Practice Handbook — For storing static policies, guidance, and reference content that doesn’t require step-by-step navigation
• Symptom Library — The main care navigation and patient signposting tool
• Analytics — Surgery-wide engagement analytics
• Admin Guide — Feature flags and admin settings

Last updated: April 2026