We held our regular quarterly EMIS NUG/EMIS meeting on 21st January 2021 with 5 EMIS NUG committee members and a number of EMIS managers.
In addition we hold monthly Watchdog and UDR catch-ups. Issues discussed included:
SNOMED Codes
Oximetry codes and Covid related codes (such as Long Covid) are due in MKB170 update (MKB=Medical Knowledge Base) currently being rolled out. Please send examples of additional codes you need for managing Covid which can be pushed forward as interim EMIS codes. Keep an eye on EMIS Now for updates
Covid and Pinnacle
EMIS Now also has an area for managing covid patients using triage and vaccine booking and other resources and information on Pinnacle, the national reporting system, also an EMIS owned system. We discussed difficulties using Pinnacle and it is true to say the interface is not well designed for the purpose it’s now being used for (it is basically a pharmacy system) but it is being updated frequently and the many criticisms have been heard and are being worked on.
We discussed problems with Pinnacle support. 1st line is being handled by Atos and they feed into EMIS and Pinnacle specialist teams.
EMIS Now
Direct links are still not possible – it does require login and EMIS are aware of the need for a directly linked knowledge and support system. There may be ways forward in the future. It is building up into a rich resource but it is still often difficult to find what you want. Further development is taking place as there is much within the system to bring into operation.
We discussed some issues of support (related to KD errors, in this case a specific one relating to Resource Publisher and templates causing EMIS crashes with a simple fix known) and suggested better FAQs or a wiki with simple screenshot guides to help users with common issues rather than receiving sometimes unsatisfactory or involved support communication.
EMIS-X
Unfortunately we did not receive the demo on EMIS-X as Adam Peardon was not available. We hope this will be rescheduled shortly. The company recently conducted an end to end patient journey using the test system involving all 24 development teams which highlighted some issues but apparently it was largely successful and represents a developmental milestone.
EMIS-X Analytics is deployed in two large areas and is available for 3m trial periods to prospective buyers keen to see what it offers. EMIS -X Document Management is being trialled by some early adopter sites.
Watchdog
Medication Workflow; online medication being all marked urgent will be corrected in v9.11.
GP Connect information coming into EMIS without being flagged is a potentially serious issue
and will be fixed.
Appointment book need to manually ‘refresh’ has been fixed (except for cross-organisational appointments).
EPS4 disappearing PDS logo is under investigation still.
EPS speed issues are being investigated and some performance improvements have been made. Excessive and trivial patient warnings is being attended to as these slow down prescribing.
The support team closing support cases when they do not make immediate contact the user over the weekend is being stopped if NHSD approve (this is to fit their SLA for response times)
Coming soon in v9.11 (early Feb)
Check out EMIS Now for some useful enhancements.
EMIS NUG requested a withdrawn medication flag so the items can be changed before attempting to prescribe – and failing.
You can also search for patients without a nominated pharmacy, merge and send a letter to patients in an appointment list, search for just urgent appointments and several more useful features and a host of problem fixes.
UDR (User Development Requests)
We discussed an updated process for receiving and collating user suggestions for enhancements. We’ll use the UDR Facebook and apply the weighting that was developed last year to judge the importance of each request in terms of its significance (eg patient safety, solving a commonly encountered issue etc) and the number and range of people who would benefit. We’ll trial use of a MachForm to detail the suggestion and pass it to the EMIS development team for further consideration and we’ll ask members suggesting ideas to describe them in enough detail to be able to assess them properly. We’ll review progress monthly and undertake to feed back to you what happens to your ideas.
We agreed to remove a lot of often very old or impossible to understand suggestions from the existing list and keep a top 25 list to take forward. We agreed this was a practical start and let’s see jhow it develops. It is goo that EMIS seems committed to still updated EMISWeb despite the string focus on EMIS-X.
AOB
We also discussed concerns around private services being advertised on Patient Access, often without being explicit enough for patients to realise that they are going outside NHS provision and we heard that some surgeries turned this off for their patients as a result. The model for PA is based on funding by advertising and the way this is developing is of considerable concern for many and could undermine this very useful service. We’ll discuss further at the next meeting with the director of the service.
Practice Manager forums could be reintroduced later in the year.