Mapping a Clinical Workflow

#Define the process and its participants

AHRQ's flowchart method begins by defining the process and identifying all the people, departments and groups involved. Steps are placed in lanes belonging to the responsible role, then connected in sequence. The completed map is checked with people who actually participate in the process.

Choose a bounded task rather than attempting to map a whole health service at once. Ask which role performs each step and what marks the beginning and end. The source sits in an ambulatory health-IT toolkit; a diagram from that toolkit is not a clinical protocol for every setting.

Evidence: AHRQ: flowchart method and limits / AHRQ: workflow assessment for ambulatory health IT

#Show decisions and transfers explicitly

AHRQ describes flowcharts as a way to show tasks, decisions and movement between participants. Its separate TeamSTEPPS handoff guidance treats a care transition as a transfer of information alongside authority and responsibility, with acknowledgment and an opportunity for questions.

A line between two roles should prompt questions about what moves, who receives it and how responsibility becomes clear. Sending information is not the same as confirming a transfer. These are reading questions about a workflow, not authority to change patient care or replace an organisation's own handoff procedures.

Evidence: AHRQ: flowchart method and limits / AHRQ TeamSTEPPS (2023): handoff

#Validate the map before interpreting it

AHRQ lists strengths and limits of flowcharts: they make roles and decisions visible, but require detailed knowledge of the process and do not themselves show value. Its problem-solving tools separately consider possible causes and contingencies. A neat diagram alone does not tell you whether a step is unnecessary.

Label whether a map describes current work or a proposed change. Check unclear steps and relevant exceptions with the people involved. Removing a step because it looks awkward can remove a safeguard. Mynd has not observed or validated a clinical workflow on this page; no patient-specific process change is recommended.

Evidence: AHRQ: flowchart method and limits / AHRQ: problem-solving tools

Source note

The sections above were checked against the linked sources. No clinical review has been performed. This is general research education, not a clinical guideline.