Objective:

• Create an approval workflow

Environment:

• PolicyStat

Procedure:

Closed captions | Text transcript

1. 1. Click the Admin tab to view the Administrator Menu.
      
      
   2. Locate Approval Workflows under the Site Data column.
      
      
   3. Click the Create New Approval Workflow button on the top right of the screen.
      
   4. From the Create Approval Workflow screen, complete the following:
      
      • Name the Workflow (1). If applicable designate the proper Applicability group (2).
      • Add Approvers by entering names or user groups (4).
      • By default, the Require Owner Approval checkbox (5) is checked. This sets the user designated as the Owner of the policy be listed as an Approver on this step. To remove this user approval, simply uncheck the box.
      • STEP DESCRIPTION (3)
        • Step Descriptions are reminders to help clarify the purpose of the step.
        • For example, if the approval of a committee is required, members of the committee can approve without being required to sign in and register their approval.  One (or more) user(s) can be designated as the responsible party for providing a copy of the policy to the committee and submit approval on their behalf.
        • In the following example, Cameron Davis would take the policy to the Cardiology Committee for their approval and mark the policy as approved (or rejected) on their behalf.
          
        • In other cases, it may prove helpful to have a title representing a specific user role, such as Medical Director. This can serve as a reminder that whomever is serving the role in question should be the noted approver.
          • In the following example, Josh Doane is the Medical Director. If Josh leaves the role, but still retains responsibilities within PolicyStat, it can be a quick reminder that the Workflow would need to change.
          • Additional examples for possible Step Descriptions are also shown below:
   5. Click to add additional steps if needed (6)
   6. When all steps have been added, click Create Flow (7).

Recommended Best Practices

We recommend the following best practices:

• Keep the Owner as the sole approver on the first step
• • Keeping the owner as the first step allows the Owner to stay informed of any changes made by subsequent approvers
• No need to name the Owner
  • The assigned Owner is a property associated with each policy.
  • Checking the box will automatically assigns the user who is the Owner to the Workflow in this step
  • Adding the name of the owner on the step requires that person to approve twice: once as the assigned owner, once as the named approver
  • Keeping the owner as their own step also allows flexibility if multiple Owners use the same workflow
• Add only people whose approvals are required
  • Users whose input would be "good to have" can be assigned as collaborators to share their feedback without requiring their approval.
  • For more on how to add collaborators, see this article
• For approval by a committees or boards, we recommend having one user approve on behalf of the committee in place of inserting all committee members
  • If committee or board membership changes, it prevents needing to update the workflow regularly.

This article applies to the following user roles: