Clinical workflows
Designing a follow-up pathway that does not create another inbox
The follow-up is where many care pathways quietly fail. A practical pattern for keeping the next action attached to the patient record.
A follow-up is not a calendar reminder. It is a clinical decision with a context: what changed, who owns the next step and what happens if nobody acts. When that context lives in a separate task tool, the care team has to reconstruct it every time.
The pattern we use is deliberately small. Every signal carries the patient record, the care plan and the responsible role. The next action is one of a small set of clinical verbs: review, contact, schedule, document or escalate. The action and its outcome stay attached to the signal.
This does not remove the need for judgement. It removes the administrative work around the judgement. The team can see why a task exists, what happened before and what should happen next — without opening three systems.