In order to maintain consistency in terminology and concepts, the following clinical workflow definitions will be used on Clinical Workflow Center.
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- Notifications
- Test not done
- Results
- Patient
- Abnormal
- Tracking
- Not Done
- Abnormal Follow – up
- Review
- To Do
- Flag
- Notifications
Referral Management – tracking and notification for all referrals to other clinicians (similar to above)
Patient Visit – support for activities that occur within a visit
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- Information gathering
- History & Patient Concerns
- Vitals
- Exam
- Patient Education
- Care Plan
- Medications
- Labs
- Referrals
- Education
- Information gathering
Patient Engagement/Communication – interactions with patients outside of standard visits
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- Notifications
- Feedback
- Direct
- Medical Device
- Application (mobile/web)
- Patient-initiated queries
- Care Plan
- Medications
- Labs
- Referrals
- Education
Care Coordination/Collaboration – interactions with other clinicians that are centered around a common patient or group of patients
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- Messaging
- Intervention requests
- Notifications
- Patient Information Sharing
- Synchronization
Population Management – oversight and interaction with a defined set of patients.
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- Disease registry
- Set-based queries
- Status
- Common Issue (all with result “X”)
- Preventive care
- Notifications/Tracking
- Required Interventions
- Planned Intervention Initiation (e.g. Flu shots)
- Disease registry
Problem/ Diagnosis Management – capture and management of patient problems, concern, and diagnoses
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- Logging
- Presumptive/Definitive Diagnosis (linked)
- Complications (complication from disease directly linked in timeline)
- Interventions (linked to diagnosis)
- Notification
- Care Team Update
- Knowledge Access
- Direct Access
- CDS
- Logging
Medication Management – capture and management of medication usage history and outcomes
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- Logging
- Side Effects
- Adverse Reactions
- Management
- Reconciliation
- Knowledge Access
- Direct
- CDS
- Logging
Note Management – Creation and management of care intervention and patient interactions
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- Create
- Review
- Search
- Update/Append
Direct Care Process- what clinicians do on behalf of patients. Direct care is comprised of clinical processes, which include everything from creating nursing care plans to doing procedures and reviewing lab results. (Direct Care Process = Clinical Process)
The clinical workflow terms defined above are based on concepts and definitions from following sources.
- Workflow Management Coalition Terminology and Glossary, 1999. http://www.wfmc.org/docs/TC-1011_term_glossary_v3.pdf
- van der Aalst W, van Hee K. Workflow Management: Models, Methods, and Systems. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 2004
- Workflow Patterns Initiative, http://www.workflowpatterns.com/
However, as is, the terms and concepts offered in these excellent publications, having been created for general business environments, require refinement in order to be used to model clinical care in detail. As such, these clinical workflow definitions have been crafted to serve as a foundation for additional clinical workflow terms and concepts that will be introduced in future articles.