Acronym and terms glossary for the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS)

The referrer active advice requests worklist shows all open advice and guidance requests. If they are still 'Requested', it is your responsibility to chase up a response as soon as possible. If it is 'Responded' you need to convert it. You can convert to an appointment request or carry out alternative care advice. Additionally, the provider may have converted the request into a referral if authorisation was provided. In this case, the request can be removed from the worklist. 

A technical issue is currently preventing the worklist videos from working, we are working to resolve this. Contact [email protected] for support.

An administrative role based in a service provider organisation (for example, a hospital) specifically designated for booking additional requirements for patients who need them. This includes any transport, interpreters or outlining any advocacy.  

This role has no access to clinical information.

A form of communication through e-RS that can take place between a referring clinician and a service provider to either get advice on how to treat a patient or alternatively arrange for the patient to be booked into a specific service. An advice and guidance referral can be converted into a standard appointment referral if necessary.

The provider advice and guidance requests worklist contains advice requests that have been submitted to a users service.

The Allied Health Professions (AHPs) are the third largest workforce in the NHS. In the main they are degree level professions, and are professionally autonomous practitioners.

An Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other.

An ASI occurs when a referrer is unable to book a patient into an appropriate appointment slot for a directly bookable service (DBS), generally for a technical reason (for example, there are no slots to book into). In this scenario, a referrer would defer the referral to the service provider to arrange booking the patient into their service.

Example ASI reasons could be: No Slots', 'Technical Error'.

Referrals which are required to be booked into an appointment or a referral request raised to allow the patient to book. These are displayed on the providers appointments for booking worklist.

The appointment slot issues worklist contains deferred referrals that are in a queue to be booked by a directly bookable service. Referrals appear here because appointment slots were not available when an appointment was requested. Appointment slot issues can occur for both technical reasons and because there were no available appointment slots at the time of booking.

The referrer assessment results/cancelled referrals/did not attends worklist shows referrals with an assessment result of 'Advise Referrer' or a triage of 'Return to Referrer with Advice'. The service provider has given a clinical decision for patient treatment, if any. You need to review the outcome and take appropriate action.

A technical issue is currently preventing the worklist videos from working, we are working to resolve this. Contact [email protected] for support.

Call handler at the e-RS call centre.

This role has no access to clinical information.

Same as BMS Admin: no distinction in e-RS although there was a difference when e-RS was formally Choose and Book.

This role has no access to clinical information.

Also known as: referral booking, appointment booking

A request which has had an appointment booked with a specific service. At this stage the patient is booked into an appointment at a specific service (which was initially shortlisted) and has a date/time for a specific appointment slot.

An administrative role based in a service provider organisation specifically designated for booking indirectly bookable appointments manually.

This role has no access to clinical information.

A Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) is an intermediate service that allows for a greater level of clinical expertise in assessing a patient than would normally be expected of a referring clinician (such as a GP). This expertise should be used to ensure that patients are directed efficiently and effectively into the most appropriate onward care pathway.

The Care Identity Service is a service that allows access to patient data using smartcards and other authenticators, and lets Registration Authorities manage and maintain that access.

A service commissioner based within an integrated care board (ICB), who has the ability to commission locally based services.

This role has no access to clinical information.

e-RS allows for the setting up of services that are available to only the local health community, based on identified needs via commissioning. There is no need for secondary care services to be commissioned. Only primary care services need be commissioned. These locally provided care pathways support the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention agenda. The e-RS directory of services (DOS) allows visibility of both these locally commissioned and nationally available services. This supports the identification of transparent care pathways.

Clinical Referral Information can be added to e-RS referrals. There are limits on the size of attachments and types which can be included.

A service which does have slots pulled directly through from a patient administration system (PAS). For these services, a referring role can directly select a date/time convenient for the patient.

These are appointments which need to be progressed due to displacement.

A displaced appointment occurs when a patient is booked into an appointment in the local appointment system or Patient Administration Service but the appointment uses a slot which has been published to e-RS and is already booked by a different patient and referral.

These referrals can be found on the providers displaced appointments worklist. This worklist may not be visible to users who are not associated with a directly bookable service via a workgroup.

The directory of services  is the core of the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS) application and:

• holds information that describes the services that organisations offer
• enables referring clinicians to search for appropriate services to which they can refer patients
• provides a window through which providers can display their services

Service providers build and publish their services on the DOS within e-RS. This in turn enables referrers to search for and list appropriate services for their patients.

A universal security checked user who can log in as any user for the purposes of troubleshooting and resolving issues raised by users.

This role has access to clinical information.

e-RS users have access to enquiries where online searches can be performed to display current information from the e-RS database at the time it runs. This data updates in real time. Many searches limit the date range to 92 days. This is into the future or the past.

Extracts are data files that can be can be downloaded from the e-RS. The extracts in e-RS contain a wealth of useful information to support organisations in understanding referral volumes, workflows and actions. After being downloaded, extracts can be unzipped and imported into data analysis software. Information analysis knowledge is required to get the best out of these extracts.

A GP (that will often travel to multiple sites) that has a focus on a specific specialty within the community. For example, paediatric healthcare.

A professional who specialises in treating and managing a person's general or specific health needs.

The referrer incomplete UBRNs worklist contains incomplete (also known as 'draft') referrals. These are UBRNs issued to an integrated GP System that have had a referral letter associated and need further action. For example, completing as an advice and guidance or appointment request. 

A technical issue is currently preventing the worklist videos from working, we are working to resolve this. Contact [email protected] for support.

A service which does not have slots pulled through from a patient administration system (PAS). To book into these slots, a booking manager needs to update e-RS with the slot information.

A providers indirectly booked appointments to cancel in PAS worklist contains the UBRNs of cancelled appointments that were booked to indirectly bookable services with which the user is associated through workgroups. These UBRNs are only included on the worklist if, at the time of cancellation, the user selects to add the UBRN to this worklist.

A reporting analyst based within a referring organisation or providing organisation. This role specifically allows for the download of reports and extracts from e-RS only.

This role has no access to clinical information.

The referrer missing referral letters worklist displays a referral where a referral letter needs attaching. Referrals will remain on this list until the letter is attached or until the appointment date is in the past.

A technical issue is currently preventing the worklist videos from working, we are working to resolve this. Contact [email protected] for support.

This referrals are shown in the outbound referral worklist and lets a clinician track referrals that have transferred to another service either using the change service or refer on processes. It displays referrals for both Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) and non CAS services and shows the status of referrals that have been referred to a different service. The Reason column describes why the referral is in the worklist. Referrals cancelled by a user outside of the initiating CAS appear on this worklist.

The provider outstanding referral letters worklist contains appointments that do not have the required referral letters associated with the UBRN and have a scheduled appointment date in the future. It is available to the service provider clinician role and also the service provider clinician admin role where they are associated with a service that can refer on.

A third-party system that referrers and providers use to manage their patients. If a PAS is integrated with e-RS, it will provide directly bookable slots to select and book into.

Example PAS systems: TPP SystmOne, EMIS Web, Medicus

Another name used for a triage service within e-RS.

The referrals for assessment worklist contains UBRNs that are booked to a service for a current or future date and need an assessment recorded.

The referrals for review worklist contains the appointments booked to the service but not yet accepted by the service with an appointment date in the future.

The referrer referrals pending external action worklist shows referrals with an assessment result of 'Advise Referrer' or a triage of 'Return to Referrer with Advice'. The service provider has given a clinical decision for patient treatment, if any. You need to review the outcome and take appropriate action.

A technical issue is currently preventing the worklist videos from working, we are working to resolve this. Contact [email protected] for support.

An administrative role (for example, receptionist) based in a referring organisation.

This role has no access to clinical information.

A qualified medical professional (for example, GP) based in a referring organisation.

This role has access to clinical information.

A delegated authority role (for example, a GP's assistant) that allows for actions to be completed on behalf of a referring clinician, based in a referring organisation.

This role no access to clinical information.

Registration Authority - RA codes are assigned to professional users’ smartcards to give them access to the correct functions within the NHS e-Referral Service (e-RS). Find out more about RA codes for e-RS or get RA Support.

The rejected cancellations worklist contains entries when two appointments are booked for the same UBRN. This can occur when the resource system rejects a cancel appointment message.

Also known as: referral request, appointment request

An initial request created within the application generating a unique booking reference number (UBRN).  At this stage a shortlist is created of applicable services a patient can book into.

An administrative role based in a service provider organisation (for example, a hospital) specifically designated for creating and maintaining the services displayed for the organisation within e-RS. This user will do all administration on services including any amendments.

This role has no access to clinical information.

An administrative role (for example, receptionist) based in a service provider organisation.

This role has no access to clinical information.

A qualified medical professional (for example, a consultant) based in a service provider organisation.

This role has access to clinical information.

A delegated authority role (for example, a consultant's assistant) that allows for actions to be completed on behalf of a service provider clinician, based in a service providing organisation.

This role has access to clinical information.

A Telephone Appointment Service (TAS) offers patients an assessment over the telephone rather than a face to face appointment.

An appointment type that allows for the patient to have a consultation over the phone rather than attending a clinic directly. A service being defined as a telephone assessment service is done at the time of service creation, selecting the 'Telephone Assessment' appointment type option within service definer.

e-RS provides a training environment for end users. This mirror live e-RS and allow training on a life-like system, without the risk of accessing or altering real data.

Also known as: Referral Assessment Service, RAS

A type of referral within e-RS that is usually assessed by a clinician (but may include administrative staff in a referral management centre) prior to having a shortlist of services created. This is used by Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) ensure that only appropriate services are shortlisted for the patient with regards to their referral.

The referrer triage responses / Rejected referrals worklist includes referrals rejected by the service provider organisation. You may need to add more clinical information and re-book the referral. The service may be inappropriate and you need to re-shortlist to send the patient elsewhere. Or, the rejection has advice on prescribing treatment to the patient without sending to a service provider.

A technical issue is currently preventing the worklist videos from working, we are working to resolve this. Contact [email protected] for support.

A priority within e-RS specifically used for patients with suspected cancer. A patient referred using the 2WW priority must be seen within two weeks.

Unique Booking Reference Number - a unique number which is assigned by e-RS to identify a request or referral through the system.

Worklists let an e-RS user view information about patients and their referrals as well as manage referrals. As a general rule if a referral is on a worklist it should be monitored or actioned. You must review all worklists on a regular basis.