Every position reviewed. The clear ones, fast.

01 · The challenge

From spot checks to every request.

The region decided every new and replacement position would go through review, not just a small share. Overnight, a side task became a full workstream, carried by a small team on top of their day jobs.

• Requests arrived in different formats, from different people, with missing details
• Some areas had backlogs of hundreds of positions to submit at once
• Simple, budgeted backfills waited in line with complex new requests
• Committee decisions lived in conversations and notes, not in a record

02 · What we built

One path in. The right path through.

1. SubmitOne smart form, or a bulk upload for backlogs
2. RouteTwo questions decide the fast track or full review
3. TriageDashboards flag what’s missing and what’s ready
4. CommitteeVotes are captured live, with the decision computed
5. Submit upApproved positions flow to the national submission

1. A form that asks the right questions. Is the role patient-care critical? Is it budgeted? Clear, budgeted backfills get a short form. Everything else gets the full business case: risk of not filling, alternatives explored, and funding.
2. A fast track for the clear cases. Patient-care critical, budgeted positions go to the committee as one consent block, approved in a single motion unless someone pulls a line.
3. Bulk upload for big backlogs. An Excel template with built-in dropdowns for thousands of job codes and departments, loaded by Data Shuttle. A corrected re-upload updates rows in place instead of duplicating them.
4. Errors go back to the source. One column spells out everything wrong with a request, and each area sees only its own flagged rows. The fix belongs to the submitter, not the review team.
5. Votes that record themselves. Six executives vote on screen. The decision updates the moment the fourth vote agrees, and Smartsheet’s cell history logs who entered every vote and when.

03 · What changed

Faster for the easy ones. Clearer for the hard ones.

The first national submission carried about 550 patient-care positions, approved through the fast track and processed without the line-by-line wait.

The committee spends its time on the requests that need judgment. Every decision has an audit trail built in, and every submitting area can see exactly what it needs to fix.

04 · Where else it works

Any approval that’s outgrown email.

The same pattern fits capital requests, change requests, contract approvals, and any intake where some requests are routine and others need a closer look, and every decision needs a record.