Returning from my holidays this week it was a particular pleasure to be greeted by EMIS Web v5.1 loading on my desktop. Of course it is always pleasing to see the enhancements and developments in EMIS Web as they enhance our ability to use the system in our daily work, but this release was particularly welcome as it contains the first major set of User Driven Requirements.
We now have the User Driven Requirements set up in EMIS as part of the new GPSoC-R, with regular meetings to discuss and prioritise enhancements and our own dedicated development team. Our job is to identify user requirements for developments in EMIS Web and get them implemented in the system.
The first couple of these enhancements appeared in version 4.11 with the “File” button on the ribbon remaining stationary and the arrival of the QCancer calculators in templates. With 5.1 we have a larger number of enhancements, with something for everyone.
For reception we see “Edit patient details” appearing on the expanded précis bar. This gives rapid access for the updating of registration details (eg phone numbers), but also for the enabling of Patient Online Services. In the consultation the “zap” box can now be moved out of the way, or even quickly minimised and restored with a key-stroke, and there are improvements in the appointment book where your changes to column widths will be remembered. For home visiting the protocol alerts can now be added to the mail-merge printout (or indeed any other mail merged document). For the geeks and anoraks there are changes to the handling of some concepts and also a new trigger when consultation data is updated.
The next raft is already in development, but keep the ideas and requests coming in. To raise an suggestion the best way is often a post to the email list where the idea will get discussed and honed, but you can also contact the NUG directly through the contact page on our website (http://www.emisnug.org.uk/contact).
Full details of the enhancements are on the EMIS Support Centre at https://emissupportcentre.e-mis.com/emis-web-release-5-1/ and https://emissupportcentre.e-mis.com/news/emis-library-2/emis-web-release-5-0/.
I addition to our work on developments the NUG also has regular meetings with EMIS to discuss issues and problems with the service, so it is not surprising that we found ourselves discussing the issues of the GPES upload issues at the year end this year. Whilst obviously concerned at what happened we were pleased to see that EMIS has undertaken a very detailed investigation into the problems that arose. In the process they have identified some issues, for example in the infrastructure and others arising from the complexity of the testing carried out both internally and with HSCIC that led to the problems. These issues have been fully addressed, and we have been assured that the problems will not recur. We have also been able to emphasise to EMIS the importance to us of the QOF searches running in EMIS as well as running the GPES extracts, and they are taking steps to make sure that both can be run in future.
As we continue to work with EMIS on these important areas we are also looking forward keenly to this years conference. Following on from last years extremely successful event we are back again from 23-25 September 2015 at East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham. For more details and to register go to http://tinyurl.com/EMISNUG15.
Happy EMIS Webbing, and keep in touch.
Geoff Schrecker
Chair EMIS National User Group