Picture this: you work in a hospital and a patient with a simple broken arm has an unexpected allergic reaction to a medicine. Or, you are redesigning your company's website and your design software crashes. Or, you are performing an internal investigation and an interview reveals new information that changes your investigation approach.

If any of these situations sound like they could happen in your workplace, a flexible case management solution could make things easier. Adaptive case management, or ACM, recognizes that "best practices" and straightforward paths to a target don't apply to every case. Instead, this process (and software that uses it) focuses on the decision-making process, allowing employees to change their route to a case's resolution as needed.

Download our free case management software buyer's guide to find out if a case management solution is right for your organization.

What is Adaptive Case Management?

Adaptive case management (ACM) is flexible, dynamic and customizable. Employees know what steps they need to take to handle a task and it often doesn't fit perfectly into a predefined, formal path. Instead, workers need access to up-to-date case information 24/7 in order to provide an ideal resolution.

The easier it is to access relevant information about the case, the more control the worker has over it, leading to more sound decisions that are in accordance with company policies and external regulations. ACM software empowers employees, putting decision-making into their hands.

No matter what industry you work in, resolving cases rarely follows a straight path. An ACM approach sees case management like the graphic below, with information from various sources going into and out of the case file throughout the process.

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Benefits of Adaptive Case Management Software

In any event-driven work environment there is no right way to do things. Each case comes with its own challenges, circumstances and tasks to complete. However, these different needs can be difficult to manage. That's where adaptive case management software comes in.

A dynamic, flexible case management solution allows employees to quickly and easily:

• change roles and processes
• add and change people and tasks
• access all case information in one place
• create reports

Completing administrative tasks and trying to fit a case into an existing format takes away precious time from actually resolving the case. Using ACM, though, streamlines workflow. A flexible case management solution also encourages the collaboration, communication and teamwork that is often needed to resolve cases in the workplace.

RELATED: Dynamic Case Management Software Keeps Investigators in the Field

Who Needs ACM?

How do you know if adaptive case management is right for your organization?  Consider using a flexible case management solution if:

• Your workplace is event-driven with tasks and resolutions that are hard to predict. Some examples include handling claims, conducting investigations, caring for patients, managing incidents, addressing customer complaints or performing human resources-related tasks.
• Your work requires using tools that are outside the typical process steps. For instance, physical and creative tasks rarely integrate well into the regular workflow, as they require special equipment, tools and software.
• Tasks in your work have many possible outcomes. When there are numerous factors that can affect a case, trying to prepare for every possible scenario ahead of time would take up time and effort that could be used elsewhere.
• You are experimenting with new work processes or projects. Being able to make changes as you go along, rather than be tied to a formal process, can help you figure out how things should go for a new type of project.

Companies and individual employees often know what processes work best for their tasks, though there is no single approach that works for every case. Giving the power of decision-making to the person who performs the job sets adaptive case management apart from typical case management solutions.

See adaptive case management in action. Book a demo of Case IQ.