Within Personal Community, messages pass between members and clinical groups. Providers, or their representatives, receive or send messages on behalf of clinical groups.

The mechanism that governs how each message passes to and from each clinical group is known as a message flow. When a patient performs an action that generates a message, that message enters the appropriate message flow. At that point, if an action is required to process the message, Personal Community creates a task that appears on the Workbench. Certain Workbench users have the ability to claim and process the task. To have such an ability, the Workbench user be associated with the workflow group that processes messages that are part of the particular message flow.

Workflows are the interactive processes that occur in the Workbench and the public application. Workbench users can perform tasks related to a particular workflow if they are added to the workflow’s group. A Workbench user who can participate in a particular workflow is known as an agent for that workflow. A Workbench user who can add agents to and remove agents from a workflow is known as a manager for that workflow.

An agent can process tasks. A manager can supervise the task completion process by performing several kinds of activities:

• Processing tasks.

• Overseeing what agents are or are not associated with the workflow group.

• Assigning tasks, changing ownership of tasks, and revoking task assignment among agents.

When a member asks a question or makes a request in Personal Community, this question or request appears in the Workbench as a task to be processed. If you are logged into the Workbench as an agent or manager in the workflow group for handling this message, you can claim and then process the message.

The procedure to claim a task is:

1. Log into the Workbench as a user who has the Task Processing role and is an agent or manager in the appropriate workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab. This displays a list of tasks in your workflow groups that are either assigned to you or unassigned.

3. In the activity pane, select the unassigned task you wish to claim. This displays the details for that task.

4. On the details page for the task, select the Claim this task button.

The procedure to relinquish a task is:

1. Log into the Workbench as a user who has the Task Processing role and is an agent or manager in the appropriate workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab. This displays a list of tasks assigned to you and unassigned tasks.

3. In the activity pane, select the task you wish to relinquish. This displays the details for that task.

4. On the details page for the task, select the Relinquish this task button.

If you are a manager for a workflow group, you can change task assignments within that group. The procedure to do this is:

1. Log into the Workbench as a user who has the Task Processing role and is a manager in the appropriate workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Groups choice. This displays the Manage Workflow Groups list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Groups list, select Tasks for the group in which you wish to manage tasks. This displays a list of open (uncompleted) tasks for the group.

5. In the list of open tasks, choose the tasks that you want to assign to, or revoke assignment from, a particular agent by selecting the checkbox on the left for each task. You can select tasks that are assigned to more than one agent, tasks that are unassigned, or a mix.

6. Select the Assign Tasks button. This displays a list of agents associated with the workflow group.

7. Select the agent who is to own the task(s) by clicking on the agent’s row.

To close a task:

1. Log into the Workbench as a manager for the workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Groups choice. This displays the Manage Workflow Groups list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Groups list, for the group in which you wish to close a task, select Tasks . This displays a list of tasks for the group.

5. Click on the row of the task you want to close. This displays detailed task information.

6. To close the task, select the Close this task button.

7. On the confirmation dialog, select OK .

If you are a manager for a workflow group, you can view information on completed tasks within that group. The procedure to do this is:

1. Log into the Workbench as a user who has the Task Processing role and is a manager in the appropriate workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Groups choice . This displays the Manage Workflow Groups list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Groups list, select Tasks for the group in which you wish to manage tasks. By default, this displays a list of open (uncompleted) tasks for the group.

5. Select Completed Tasks from the View dropdown list. This displays information on all completed tasks for the workflow group.

To add an agent to a group:

1. Log into the Workbench as a manager for the workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Agents choice. This displays the Manage Workflow Agents list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Agents list, select the agent you wish to add to the group. This displays the Agent Details page for the agent.

5. On the Agent Details page , select Add Groups to Agent . This displays the Workflow Groups page.

6. On the Workflow Groups page, select the checkbox for each group that you are adding the agent to.

7. Select the Save Groups button to add the groups to the agent.

To remove an agent from a group:

1. Log into the Workbench as a manager for the workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Agents choice . This displays the Manage Workflow Agents list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Agents list, select the agent you wish to remove from the group. This displays the Agent Details page for the agent.

5. On the Agent Details page, select Remove Groups from Agent button. This displays the Workflow Groups page.

6. On the Workflow Groups page, select the check box for each group that you are removing the agent from.

7. On the confirm dialog, select OK .

This is a separate process for each of the agent’s groups.

To activate or deactivate an agent::

1. Log into the Workbench as a manager for the workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Groups choice. This displays the Manage Workflow Groups list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Groups list, select Agents for the group in which you wish to manage tasks. This displays a list of agents assigned to the group; each agent’s role is listed in the Agent Role column.

5. Select Modify for the agent whose role you wish to change. This displays the Agent Details page for the agent.

6. On the Agent Details page, make the agent active or inactive by selecting the Make Active or Make Inactive button.

7. Confirm your decision by selecting OK on the confirmation dialog.

This process is sometimes known as changing the status of an agent.

To add or modify the basic characteristics a workflow group:

1. Log into the Workbench as a user with the Provider Manager role.

2. Go to the Setup tab.

3. In the activity pane, choose Workflow Groups . This displays the Workflow Groups page.

4. On the Workflow Groups page, to add a workflow group, choose the Add Workflow Group button; to modify an existing workflow group, click on the workflow group’s row in the list. Both these actions display the Workflow Group Details page.

5. On the Workflow Group Details page, to modify the group enter:

   • Workflow group name — Required. The name of the workflow group.

   • Description — Optional. Any other information about the workflow group.

6. Choose Save to create the group.

To add a group to an agent:

1. Log into the Workbench as a manager for the workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Groups choice. This displays the Manage Workflow Groups list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Groups list, for the group that you want to add to an agent, select Agents . This displays a list of agents for the group.

5. On this page, select the Add Agents to Group button. This displays the Agents page.

6. On the Agents page, select the check box for each agent that you are adding to the group.

7. Select the Add Agents button to add the agents to the group.

8. On the confirmation dialog, select OK .

To remove an agent from a group:

1. Log into the Workbench as a manager for the workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Groups choice. This displays the Manage Workflow Groups list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Groups list, for the group that you want to remove from an agent, select Agents. This displays a list of agents for the group.

5. On this page, for the agent that you want to remove, select Remove in that agent’s row.

6. On the confirmation dialog, select OK .

This is a separate process for each of the agent’s or manager’s groups.

In each workflow, a workbench user can either be an agent or a manager. To change from one role to the other:

1. Log into the Workbench as a manager for the workflow group.

2. In the Workbench, go to the Tasks tab.

3. Select the Manage Groups choice. This displays the Manage Workflow Groups list in the activity pane.

4. From the Manage Workflow Groups list, select Agents for the group in which you wish to manage tasks. This displays a list of agents assigned to the group; each agent’s role is listed in the Agent Role column.

5. Select Modify for the agent whose role you wish to change. This displays the Agent Details page for the agent.

6. On the Agent Details page, select the role for the agent from the Agent Role list.

7. Select Save Role to save the agent with the new role.

This is a separate process for each of the agent’s or manager’s groups.

To delete a workflow group:

1. Log into the Workbench as a user with the Provider Manager role.

2. Go to the Setup tab.

3. In the activity pane, choose Workflow Groups . This displays the Workflow Groups page.

4. On the Workflow Groups page, click on the workflow group’s row in the list. This displays the Workflow Group Details page.

5. On the Workflow Group Details page, select the Delete button.

6. When prompted, confirm that you wish to delete the workflow group.