Business Continuity Guide
EPS 2
NHS Sussex
V0.2 25/06/2012
Guidance in the development of
Business Continuity for EPS 2
The NHS Sussex EPS Project team have provided
this guidance to support pharmacists in developing
their EPS contingency planning.
NHS Sussex do not accept liability for the contents of this document. It is the responsibility of
the pharmacy to develop robust contingency plans.
Continued…………………..
Possible actions to be taken as an interim measure
•
The health care professional should use their professional judgement and
base a decision, as to the most appropriate action to be taken, on the
information available at the time. Important factors to consider are:
• What stage of the business process the failure has occurred.
• The estimated time needed to resolve the issue - some technical failures
will take longer to resolve than others. For instance, a printer failure due
to lack of toner can be resolved quickly, whereas a local or national
network connection may take longer to resolve.
Continued…………………..
•
The clinical need of the patient - in some cases there may be an urgent
need for the patient to receive the prescription items. There are a number of
options to consider, including those listed below. In some scenarios, one or
more different actions may be appropriate:
•
Contacting the prescriber to obtain a paper FP10 prescription
•
Using the emergency supply arrangements
•
Advising the patient to return to the dispensary at an alternative time
•
Advising the patient to use an alternative dispensing site
•
Capturing data on paper to be inputted at a later time.
Smart Cards
If your smartcard is not working you will not
be able to access the spine!
The following scenarios give you some
solutions to smartcard failures.
Scenario 1.
What would I do if my smartcard is
faulty?
• Option 1:
Check it is the card and not the reader that is faulty by trying
your card in another machine.
• Option 2:
Contact Sussex Health Informatics Service on 0845 845 4488
and log a call for the attention RA dept
• Consider any issues which may result in a damaged card
reader, and make suitable changes to current practices within
the dispensary. Ensure liquids are kept away from keyboards,
Smartcard readers and other equipment
Scenario 2.
What would you do If your card is
lost or stolen?
• Option 1:
Contact Sussex Health Informatics to report the missing card
0845 845 4488 (9.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday excluding
bank holidays).
• Option 2:
Ask a colleague to use their smartcards to download EPS
prescriptions or set nominations. (It is good practice to
ensure, where possible, that at least two staff on duty have
working smartcards.)
• Option 3:
Follow your local Business Continuity plan
The following scenarios are based on the
local clinical system being down or the
server has failed
Scenario 3: I can’t download or
access electronic prescription(s) ?
•
•
•
•
•
Option 1: Ask patient to return to prescriber to obtain paper
FP10 prescription
Option 2: Contact GP practice to advise of failure and ask
them to produce hand signed paper prescriptions
Option 3: Advise patient to use an alternative EPS Release 2 enabled
dispensing contractor. (The patient will be able to set their nomination
at the alternative site to divert the script to this site.)
Option 4: If urgent and appropriate, issue an emergency
supply
Option 5: Advise patient to return at a later time
Remember! You need to consider factors such as clinical need of the patient,
the time it will take to resolve the problem and the communications required
Scenario 4: I Can’t Set, Change or
Cancel Nomination!
• Option 1:
Provide information to patient, capture data and update
at a later time (informing the patient that the nomination
may not be recorded within the usual timeframe)
• Option 2:
Ask patient to set the nomination at any other EPS
Release 2 enabled dispensing site
Contacts
EPS Project Lead Becky Gayler
becky.gayler@nhs.net
07824 361 906
Mike Headley. Community Pharmacy Development officer.
m.hedley@nhs.net
07917 232 145
RA via Sussex Health Informatics Service Contact Centre
0845 845 4488