What is Workflow Guidance?

Workflow Guidance provides visual flow-diagram based guidance to support staff in handling common internal workflows such as discharge summaries, test requests, and GP review.

This module is controlled by the workflow_guidance feature flag and must be enabled by a superuser before it appears in the navigation.

How This Differs from Signposting

Signposting focuses on where a patient should be directed.

Workflow Guidance focuses on how staff should process work internally once it arrives.

Global Default and Surgery Workflows

Workflows are initially created as Global Default templates.

Surgeries can:

• Use Global Default workflows unchanged
• Create local overrides for surgery-specific processes
• Create entirely surgery-specific workflows

When a surgery overrides a Global Default workflow, the link to the original is preserved so changes can be tracked.

Node Types

Workflow diagrams are built from five types of node. Each has a specific role in the flow:

Instruction

An information block that tells staff what to do or check at this step. Instruction nodes contain a title and rich-text body with detailed guidance. Staff read the instruction and proceed to the next step.

Question

A decision point with two or more answer options (e.g. “Yes / No”, or multiple choices). Each answer option can branch to a different next node or trigger a specific action. Question nodes are how workflows branch into different paths depending on the situation.

End

A terminal node that represents the outcome of a workflow path. End nodes carry an action key that tells staff what to do with the document. The available action keys are:

Panel

A background container node that groups related steps visually. Panel nodes render behind other nodes and can be resized and repositioned to create clear visual groupings on the canvas. They do not affect the workflow logic — they are purely for visual organisation.

Reference

An informational reference card that provides supporting context (e.g. “See also: local referral criteria”). Reference nodes are not connectable to the workflow flow — they sit alongside the diagram as supplementary information.

Node Badges and Styling

Badges

Nodes can display small badge pills in the top-right corner (e.g. “STAMP”) to quickly identify special requirements or categories.

Theme Presets

Nodes can use one of six theme presets:

• Default — Standard appearance
• Info (blue) — Informational steps
• Warning (amber) — Steps requiring caution
• Success (green) — Positive outcomes
• Muted (grey) — Lower-priority steps
• Panel — Background container style

Custom Colours

Beyond themes, each node can have custom background, text, and border colours, as well as border width, border radius, and font weight.

Surgery-Wide Style Defaults

Admins can set default colours per node type at the surgery level from Workflow → Admin → Styles. This ensures a consistent look across all workflows without styling each node individually.

Template-level defaults can also be set per workflow, overriding the surgery defaults.

Creating and Editing Workflows

The Workflow Canvas

Admins build workflows on a visual canvas powered by React Flow. The canvas supports:

• Drag-and-drop nodes to position them on the diagram
• Connect nodes by dragging from one node’s output handle to another node’s input handle
• Edge labels on connections to show answer text or navigation context
• Zoom and pan to navigate large diagrams
• Collapsible details panel — the side panel can be collapsed to give more space for the diagram

Creating a Workflow

1. Go to Workflow → Templates in the admin area.
2. Click Create Workflow.
3. Enter a name, description, optional icon, and colour.
4. Set the workflow type (Primary, Supporting, or Module) and landing category (Primary, Secondary, or Admin) to control how it appears on the landing page.
5. The canvas opens with a blank diagram. Add nodes, connect them, and set their content.

Editing an Existing Workflow

1. Navigate to the workflow template.
2. Click Edit to open the canvas.
3. Modify nodes, connections, or styling as needed.
4. Changes are saved to the template.

Template Management

• Duplicate — Create a copy of an existing template.
• Delete — Remove a template (admin only).
• View — Preview a template as staff would see it (read-only).

Draft and Approval States

All workflows operate within a draft-and-approve lifecycle to ensure clinical governance.

• Draft — Only visible to admins. Work in progress.
• Approved — Visible to all staff. Ready for use.
• Superseded — A previous version that has been replaced.

The approval record tracks who approved the workflow and when.

Running Workflows (Staff View)

Starting a Workflow

1. Go to Workflow Guidance in the main navigation.
2. The landing page shows available workflows grouped by category (Primary, Secondary, Admin).
3. Click on a workflow to view it, or click Start to begin a new instance.
4. Enter an optional reference (e.g. “Cardiology letter 11/12/25 — JS”) and category (e.g. “Hospital Letter”, “Result”).

Working Through a Workflow

1. The workflow displays the current step — an instruction to read or a question to answer.
2. For question nodes, select an answer from the available options. The workflow advances to the next step based on your answer.
3. Optionally add free-text notes at any step.
4. Continue until you reach an End node, which tells you the final action to take (e.g. “Forward to GP”, “File without forwarding”).

Workflow Instances

Each time a staff member starts a workflow, a new instance is created. Instances track:

• Which template was used
• Who started it
• The reference and category
• Status: Active, Completed, or Cancelled
• All answers given at each step
• When it was completed

Cross-Workflow Links

Some workflow nodes link to other workflows. These appear as navigation links on the node, allowing staff to open a related workflow in context (e.g. a discharge summary workflow might link to a referral process workflow).

Engagement Analytics

Admins can view workflow engagement from Workflow → Admin → Engagement. This shows:

• Which workflows are being viewed
• View counts over time
• Which staff members are engaging with workflows

This data helps admins understand which workflows are actively used and where further training may be needed.

See also the Analytics page for the surgery-wide analytics dashboard.

Governance and Audit

Every workflow records:

• Who approved it
• When it was approved
• Who last edited it
• When it was last edited

This creates a complete audit trail for governance purposes.

Related Pages

• Admin Guide — Managing workflows as an admin
• Clinical Governance — Governance framework
• Analytics — Surgery-wide usage analytics

Last updated: February 2026