Care follow-up

A completed consultation may leave work for another day. The Clinical Coordinator records that action as a patient task and assigns the staff member responsible for it. The task text explains the work, while its due date helps the team decide what needs attention. Keeping follow-up against the patient lets staff review ongoing work even when the original encounter has already finished.

The assigned Licensed Clinician or Clinical Coordinator updates progress as the work happens. Open, in progress, Completed, Escalated and Cancelled describe different situations. Use the state that matches the actual next action. The completion date records when the task was finished; an escalation keeps unresolved work visible to the team instead of treating a handoff as completion.

• A specific action. Write the task so the next person understands what they need to do for the patient. Assign a named staff member and agree the due date. Review the patient identity before saving a task, especially when several people have similar names.
• Progress and ownership. Move Open work to in progress when the assignee starts. If responsibility changes, review the assignment with the receiving person. The current owner should be able to explain what remains and which patient record they need to consult.
• An explicit outcome. Mark Completed with the actual completion date after the action is finished. Use Escalated when further attention is needed and Cancelled when the task is withdrawn. Review those outcomes separately so cancelled work cannot be mistaken for delivered follow-up.

Agree who can assign tasks, which staff identities can receive them and how due dates are chosen. Decide what belongs in the task text and which clinical details should stay in the attributed encounter note. Give staff an agreed route for resolving an unclear assignment or a task that cannot be completed within the expected period.

Choose a routine for reviewing overdue and Escalated work. Decide who checks the list when the assigned clinician is unavailable and how the receiving person confirms the new responsibility. Review the task state and due date together; a task entered without a date should still receive a deliberate scheduling decision. Configure any reminder connection separately if the center chooses to use one.

Create a fictional patient follow-up that asks the assigned clinician to review the encounter documentation with the coordinator. Give it a due date and start the work. Rehearse an unresolved question that requires escalation, keeping the task marked Escalated while the team identifies the next owner. Finish a separate task and record its completion date. The coordinator should be able to explain why the first task remains open for attention and why the second is complete.

• My care follow-up — Find Open, in progress and Escalated tasks assigned to the current staff member.
• Overdue care tasks — Review unfinished patient tasks whose due date has arrived or passed.

Follow care task assignment to completion after the encounter review.