Agents & Automation Prioritization Canvas

Short name the opportunity (e.g., 'Admission form automation').

Describe current manual steps, stakeholders, pain points, downstream dependencies, and where errors occur.

Estimate cumulative staff hours spent per week on this task across all roles. Use 0 if negligible.

How often the task occurs per week (approximate).

Rate how variable the task inputs/process are. 1 = highly standard and repeatable, 5 = highly variable or requires judgement.

Rate how accessible and structured the needed data is. 1 = readily available and structured, 5 = hard to access or unstructured.

Select the most likely automation approach and typical complexity.

1 = minimal configuration; 5 = large development and integration effort requiring cross-team work.

Rate expected impact on patient safety or clinical outcomes. 1 = minimal, 5 = major improvement or high patient safety sensitivity.

1 = low risk or non-PHI; 5 = high regulatory complexity or high PHI handling.

High-level estimate of percentage return on investment per year, if known. Leave blank if unknown.

Define measurable criteria for a pilot to be considered successful (e.g., 'reduce processing time by 40%, error rate <1%, and clinician override <5%').

List metrics to monitor during pilot and production (e.g., error rates, override rate, time saved, clinician satisfaction, incident reports). Include thresholds and alert conditions.

Will a human need to review or approve results produced by the automation? If yes, describe the review step in mitigations.

Describe controls, rollback plan, clinical ownership, approval gates, and escalation paths if the automation produces unexpected results.

Name the team, role, or individual who will own the pilot and monitoring responsibilities.

Provide a realistic pilot duration to demonstrate outcomes.

Add links to supporting documents, vendor proposals, or screenshots (URLs).

This canvas captures inputs needed to compare candidates. Use this suggested manual scoring method to compute a simple priority value (tools can later compute this automatically): 1) Convert numeric inputs into 1–5 scores where needed: - Time saved score (hours/week): 0–1h=1, >1–5h=2, >5–15h=3, >15–40h=4, >40h=5. - Frequency score (times/week): 1–2=1, 3–10=2, 11–30=3, 31–80=4, >80=5. - Automation complexity numeric mapping: rpa_low=1, api=2, agent=3, rpa_high=3, custom=4. 2) Compute an aggregate benefit score = (SafetyImpact*2 + TimeSavedScore + FrequencyScore + (6 - DataAccessibility))/5. Safety is weighted more because of clinical consequences. 3) Compute an aggregate cost/risk score = Effort + RegulatoryRisk + AutomationComplexityScore. 4) Priority suggestion = BenefitScore * 10 - CostRiskScore. Higher values indicate higher priority. Example (admissions form automation): SafetyImpact=2, TimeSavedScore=4, FrequencyScore=4, DataAccessibility=2 => BenefitScore=(2*2+4+4+(6-2))/5=(4+4+4+4)/5=16/5=3.2. CostRisk (Effort=2,RegRisk=2,Complexity=2)=6. Priority=3.2*10-6=26. Use this as a starting point and adapt weights to your organization's hungers and risk tolerance. Store entries and compare candidates by priority, owner, or safety impact.