What is a care flow?

A care flow is a series of steps performed for, with, or by a patient, to reach or keep a good state of health. It can be a two-step protocol or a program that runs for years.

Care flow is the canonical term, whatever the local name

Organizations already have a word for this, and it may not be ours:

care program · care pathway · clinical pathway · clinical protocol · care process · care process model · patient journey · patient pathway · care path · guideline · patient onboarding flow

We use care flow as the canonical term throughout these docs. Teams that say "pathway" can read that word wherever "care flow" appears: they mean the same thing here.

In the product itself, "pathway" still appears in places, especially in the API. Care flow and pathway are used interchangeably.

A care flow is a sequence with a health goal

• It's a sequence. Something happens, then something else, and the order matters.
• It has a health goal. Steps exist to reach or maintain a state of health, not just to move paperwork.

If both are true, it can be built, run, and improved in Awell, however small or long-running it is.

A care flow is also the unit of change

The health goal is broad, but the reason to build a care flow is usually narrower: a number the organization is trying to move, like the time a task takes, or the share of eligible patients who complete a screening.

A care flow is the smallest thing that can be changed and measured on its own. Naming the number first is the difference between a process that was rebuilt and a process that demonstrably improved. See Decide what to improve.

Next steps

Next: Awell platform overview — which part of the platform designs a care flow, and which part runs it.