NHS e-Referral Service
E | nhs.ers@hscic.gov.uk
W | www.hscic.gov.uk/ers
Provider Roles
Issued: 3rd June 2015 v3.0
Presentation content valid on day of issue
Provider Roles
(1 of 2)
This section is for users with the Service Provider roles.
Click on the heading of any
item for a fuller description
Changes to Referral Letter parameters
• Missing file extensions will be added automatically (eg “.docx”).
• Organisations can now name documents using up to 255 characters (instead of 40).
Specialty Selection
• The speciality picklist will show a full list of all specialities – it will no longer be two
sections.
Service Provider Clinician Admin Log in
• It has been made clearer and simpler to log in and change the Service Provider Clinician
to log in on behalf of.
Services Removed in Error
• If a service is removed in error, any referrals already in the system will be accessible to
providers to prevent loss of referrals.
Changes to Clinical Attachments (eg referral letters)
• Any service may now see a change to referral information up until the Freeze Time.
• More services could be set up not to receive referral letters. Referrals to these services
will not appear on the Referrals for Review worklist.
Click here for further changes
Provider Roles
(2 of 2)
This section is for users with the Service Provider roles.
Click on the heading of any
item for a fuller description
Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) Functionality Changes
• Any service may be set up with CAS functionality, which will change the referral pathway.
• A CAS will be able to request Additional Requirements from an Advice and Guidance
Response.
Patient Web Application
• Referrers will be able to unlock “locked” referrals.
Preferences
• Preferences will not initially be available for providers.
Enhanced Help Function
• The content of the Help function has been enhanced.
Changes to Printing Worklists
• Worklists will now automatically print without a preview being displayed.
Click here to see previous changes
Providers – Minor Changes
Back to list of changes
Changes to Referral Letter Parameters
File extension name
Some GP Clinical Systems do not automatically save documents
with recognised file extensions. This causes problems for
providers who cannot open the attachments and who then contact
practices asking for copies. NHS
e-Referral Service will ensure that the file extension is included to
prevent this issue.
File name length
When adding clinical information via GP systems, the maximum
file name length has increased from 40 to 255.
Benefit – Time and resource savings for both provider and referring
organisations.
Providers – Change
Back to list of changes
Specialty Selection
•
•
NHS e-Referral Service will display one list of specialties to pick from.
Users will no longer see two lists when referring a patient (with a line separating the
“top 20” from the full list).
To speed up finding a
specialty, commence typing
the word and the highlight bar
will move to the specialty.
Providers - Enhancement
Back to list of changes
Service Provider Clinician Admin – Initial Log in
•
•
•
Logging into NHS e-Referral Service on behalf of a clinician has been made simpler
to initiate and change.
The initial log in screen has combined the two actions of which role to log in to; and
who to log in “on behalf of”
Once logged in, changing who the user is working on behalf of has been made easier
to find, as the Change button is at the top of the screen.
Initial log in “on behalf of” screen
Providers - New
Back to list of changes
Removing Services
• Service Definers within an organisation set up and manage services on a daily basis.
They can remove a service, without prior notice or completing the necessary preremoval actions and this occasionally happens by accident.
• In Choose and Book this would have the impact of removing access to all referrals
within the deleted service
• If this should occur in NHS e-Referral Service, referrals already in the system will
remain on their existing worklist. For example, the referrals on the Referrals for
Review worklist will stay on there even if the service is accidently removed.
Benefit – This is good news for services as referrals will not disappear from
worklists, where services are removed from the system by accident.
Providers – Enhancement
Back to list of changes
Changes to Supporting Information for Referrals
Supporting Information includes clinical referral letters, templates, test results, etc.
Supporting Information Not Required
• Historically most services are set up so that they receive some form of supporting
clinical information for each referral.
• In NHS e-Referral Service any service can be set up not to require the addition of
clinical information.
• Where this is the case, it is important to note that:
–
–
referrals will not appear on the Referrals for Review worklist, nor in the Missing Referral Letter
enquiry, but will be accessible via the Patient and Appointment enquiries.
Clinical Assessment Services (CAS) will see the referral in the Referrals for Assessment
worklist.
Updating/Modifying Supporting Information
• In NHS e-Referral Service, referrals to indirectly bookable services will be able to be
updated/modified in the same way that directly bookable services can, ie up to the
Freeze Time set by each service.
• Updated/modified UBRNs will re-appear on the Referrals for Review worklist, even after
being accepted.
Providers – CAS Changes
Back to list of changes
Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) Functionality
• NHS e-Referral Service will let Service Definers set up any service with CAS
functionality.
• Clinicians and administrators need to understand how CAS functionality works and the
impact that will have on current ways of working.
• Training is recommended, which is available on the NHS e-Referral website.
Requesting Additional Requirements
• In the scenario where a provider has requested Advice & Guidance from another
service and the outcome has been to refer on, they will now be able to request
Additional Requirements for the referral as part of the same process.
Providers – Change
Back to list of changes
Patient Web Application
Locked Referrals
• Sometimes providers see a referral as “locked” when trying to book or action a
referral. (NB – these will automatically unlock after 30 minutes)
• The following professional users can now unlock these referrals, along with those
with the BMS Admin role: Referring Clinicians, Referring Clinician Admin and
Referring Admin.
• Patients can now be advised to contact either The Appointment Line (TAL) on
0345 68 8888, or their GP/referring practice for help in unlocking their referral.
Providers - Removed
Back to list of changes
Preferences
•
The Preferences function will initially not be available for Service Providers in NHS
e-Referral Service.
Preferences previously set will return to default settings. These are:• Default Worklist – Referrals for Review worklist
• Default Column settings - all columns will be visible
Providers - Help Function
(1 of 3)
System Help content
•
•
•
Help Files are being developed for NHS e-Referral Service, which will be:
• similar format type to other online systems (eg Microsoft) and are in place of
a manual
• accessible via a Help link at the top of the screen
• written in a user friendly way, giving diagrams, process flows and benefits as
well as direct information
The first release will be simple, but effective and something to build on.
To access the Help Files you simply click on the Help text at the top left of the
screen (as highlighted below).
The following screens show how the Help is coming together so far.
Benefit: Access to comprehensive supporting information within the system
Providers - Help Function
Search options
Key Points:
• There are a variety of search options to choose from.
• Icons and hyperlinks have been added to highlight and
provide additional information.
• Diagrams are included to show process flows
(2 of 3)
Providers - Help Function
(3 of 3)
Back to list of changes
Diagrams are included to help users
understand process flows.
Some will also be links to further
information to a specific area.
For example, by clicking on Search for
Appointments on this diagram you will be
redirected to that subject with the Help
Files.
Providers - Printing Worklists
Back to list of changes
In Choose and Book a preview of the
worklist appeared before the user
selected the ‘Print’ button.
In the e-Referral Service the ‘Print’ button
has been renamed ‘Print List’. Selecting
this will now display the Print popup box
and no preview.
Users are still able to copy the worklist
(CtrlA, CtrlC) and paste the detail into
Excel.
Final Slides
Further information will be made available on the NHS eReferral Service website leading up to go live. This will
include:
• Training products, including e-learning, quick reference
guides, etc
• Frequently Asked Questions
• General information
NHS e-Referral Service website:
www.hscic.gov.uk/ers
Click here to return to the start of the presentation