We held our quarterly meeting with EMIS today by video.
We discussed what worked well and also what was less good about EMIS’s response to the Covid-19 emergency. We thanked EMIS for their rapid response to the pandemic at what was a very difficult time for many of their team, the company as a whole and of course the whole country. They certainly pulled out all stops but were hindered to a degree by the uncertainty of the condition and the frequent mixed messages coming from the centre, especially over shielded patients. There were a few inevitable hiccups, including a request from another body which caused an over-reporting of suspected Covid-19 but overall they did us proud.
Prof Julia Hippisley-Cox reported on the advanced preparations for launching QCovid risk scoring tool which will hopefully be rolled out in September and help us deal with vulnerable patients more intelligently.
We discussed the progress of EMIS-X. The programme has been adjusted and we look forward to an exciting announcement in the next few weeks.
We discussed a number of User Development Requests, both in progress and taken from our Facebook Page and will be given access to a development portal for more regular dialogue between the NUG and EMIS in order to try and push through some of the more frequently requested enhancements. One item we asked for will come soon, the removal of the default for all repeat medication requests to be marked as urgent. Also coming soon will be EPS for non GP practices - urgent care and walk-in centres - which has been undergoing trials.
Also on the near horizon is a search for non DM&D items and withdrawn drugs so they can be managed before the requests come in.
There have been measurable speed improvements with signing prescriptions in Medicines Management following some analytic work carried out. The requests for simple bulk signing continue to come in and we discussed, though this may have to wait until EMIS-X.
Some development requests might be better suited to EMIS-X, so even if we don't see them in EMIS Web, keep the ideas coming as you are helping to shape the future! Some though, may be compatible with EMIS Web so also expect to see continued development though maybe not as major as we'd like.
Mike Walton holds monthly online meetings to discuss Watchdog issues and we discussed a couple of items.