What it does
Supervisors review the case logs their learners submit and either approve them with a performance rating or return them with feedback. Approval locks the log and counts it toward requirements; a return sends it back to the learner with the reason. Reviews can happen in the app or through a secure, time-limited external link that requires no sign-in.
Who it's for
Faculty supervisors sign off on their assigned learners' logs from the personal portal; program administrators can review from the program workspace; external reviewers — for example a preceptor without a platform account — complete a single review through a secure link.
How it works
The review workspace. The Cases to sign page shows an Awaiting sign-off tab with logs waiting on you and a Signed off tab with your past decisions, filterable to approved or returned. You can search, filter by date range, and sort. The workspace appears only once you have learners assigned to you.
Approving and returning. Opening a log shows what the learner recorded in the Review Case Log panel. Approving asks for a Performance Level — observed, needs improvement, borderline, or competent — and optional comments, then select Approve. Selecting Reject instead sends your feedback to the learner, who can edit and resubmit. Every decision is recorded in the audit trail.
Reverting. If a log was approved by mistake, a reviewer can revert it to pending and review it again.
Bulk review. Select multiple pending logs and choose Approve selected or Return selected, up to 500 at a time. Only logs still in pending status change; anything else in the selection is skipped, and the result tells you how many were updated versus skipped.
External review by secure link. A review link opens a public Case Log Review page showing the case awaiting review. The reviewer selects Review Case Log, then Approve with a performance rating or Reject with comments — no account needed. Links are time-limited (72 hours by default), tied to one case log, and single-use. The page explains when a link has expired, was already used, or the case was already reviewed, and directs the reviewer to the program administrator for a fresh link.
Before you start
You need an assigned learner-supervisor relationship, or case-management permission, to see a log in your queue.
Decide the Performance Level before you approve — the panel requires one.
If you're returning a log, have your feedback ready; the learner sees it and must resubmit.
Do this
Open Cases to sign (
/supervision/cases) → you should see the Awaiting sign-off tab with logs assigned to you.Select a case in the list view → the Review Case Log panel opens with what the learner recorded.
To approve, choose a Performance Level, add comments if you want, then select the Approve button → the log moves to the Signed off tab and counts toward requirements.
To send it back, add your feedback in comments and select the Reject button → the learner sees your feedback and can resubmit.
To fix a mistaken approval, open the log from Signed off and select the Revert button → the log returns to Awaiting sign-off for another review.
You're done when
✓ The log shows under Signed off with the performance rating you gave it.
✓ A returned log disappears from your queue until the learner resubmits it.
✓ Reverting a log puts it back on Awaiting sign-off, ready for another decision.
Boundaries and limits
Authorization to approve or return a specific log is checked on the server; if the check can't be completed, the action is denied by default.
Bulk actions only transition logs that are currently pending; approved, returned, or draft logs in the selection are skipped, never overwritten.
Bulk review is capped at 500 logs per action.
Learners see the return reason on their own log, but reviewer-only fields — supervisor comments, performance ratings, and private notes — are stripped from their personal-portal view.
External review links expire (72 hours by default), work for exactly one case log, and can't be reused; only a hashed form of the token is ever stored.
Reviewing requires a supervisor relationship or case-management permission; there's no self-approval path for a learner's own pending log through the review workspace.
Approvals, returns, reversions, and external-link generation are all written to the audit trail.
Common questions
Q: What do the performance ratings mean? A: They record the reviewer's judgment of the learner's involvement: observed, needs improvement, borderline, or competent. A rating is required to approve; a return records feedback instead.
Q: Can I undo an approval? A: Yes. Reverting moves the log back to pending so it can be reviewed again. The reversion is audited.
Q: A preceptor's review link stopped working. Why? A: Links are single-use and time-limited; if it expired, was already used, or the case was reviewed by someone else, the page says so. Ask the program administrator for a new link.
Q: Does the learner see my comments? A: The learner sees the reason when a log is returned, but reviewer-side fields like supervisor comments and performance ratings aren't exposed in their personal view.
GME programs
Applies to: gme. Differences from the base article only.
Who it's for
In GME programs the learners submitting logs are residents and fellows, and the reviewers signing off are attendings and faculty supervisors. The review workspace and the program's approval hub use resident terminology directly — for example, searching pending logs by resident name and listing "residents at risk" of falling behind on reviews.
How it works
Attending sign-off. The approve/return decision is the attending's sign-off on the resident's case log. Approval records the attending's performance rating of the resident (observed, needs improvement, borderline, or competent) and locks the log; a return sends it back to the resident with feedback for correction and resubmission.
External preceptors. Community attendings or off-site preceptors without platform accounts complete sign-off through the secure single-use review link, so rotations at affiliate sites don't stall the resident's log pipeline.
Why timeliness matters. Approved logs are what count toward the program's minimum case requirements and automatic credential-level thresholds, so a stalled sign-off queue directly delays a resident's documented progress. The approval hub's overdue and stale-return indicators exist to surface exactly that.
Common questions
Q: Do approved logs feed ACGME case log reporting? A: The platform tracks case counts against the minimums your program configures internally. It does not submit data to external accreditor case log systems.
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