EPS Prescription Tracker business continuity mode user guide part 1

Within business continuity mode resident pharmacy staff will have access to summary level information on prescriptions which are nominated to their site. They will also be able to drill down to view prescription information relating to the patient and medication details.

Locum pharmacy staff using the (5F) Smartcard role profile will also have access to summary level information relating to the EPS prescriptions which are nominated to the selected pharmacy site. However, patient and medication details will only be viewable when a search has been performed for the relevant prescription ID, or the patient NHS Number.

Access to this information is intended to assist business continuity planning and working for example helping to assist any discussions with GP practices, and helping to determine which patients might require emergency supply.

Further information about using business continuity mode is given in this page. It includes how to use the mode and how to find prescription information to assist continuity working.  

Open EPS Prescription Tracker in the usual way, through the NHS Spine portal. You will need a smartcard. 

Select the EPS Prescription Tracker from the NHS spine portal.

To use business continuity mode, you must select the change mode and then select business continuity mode.  

To proceed and use the business continuity mode you will need to agree to the terms and conditions in the disclaimer.  This will confirm that the pharmacy has a business continuity situation and that prescription details can not be accessed using the usual dispensing system, in the usual way.

You must accept the terms and conditions of entry to business continuity mode before being allowed to proceed. 

Selecting the close button shown in the bottom corner will exit business continuity mode and return the user to the normal operation mode.  

Resident pharmacy staff

If you have only one pharmacy site assigned onto your smartcard then the site will have been selected when you authenticated using your smartcard reader. If you work at more than one pharmacy then you will need to select the site for business continuity when authenticating access to the NHS Spine portal.

Locum pharmacy staff

Using (5F) smartcard role profile: A locum (5F) user must select and confirm which pharmacy site will use business continuity arrangements before proceeding - see the images below. All activity by the locum whilst assigned to this site will be recorded within NHS Spine audit logs.  

Select the pharmacy name to highlight it in blue and then select continue to confirm the site you have selected. 

Click accept and continue to confirm the selected site or choose another pharmacy to return to pharmacy site selection or cancel to return to normal operation mode.  

Resident staff or locum (5F) pharmacy staff can search by prescription ID to look up a single prescription. 

Enter the prescription ID and then select search. Click on the prescription ID Link to display prescription information. 

Click in on the "prescription ID" link will display the prescription information screen which provides details of the quality and type of medicine prescribed. 

Close in the top hand right hand corner will returns user back to the to search results.

The prescription medication column gives details of medication and dosage details. 

Resident staff or Locum (5F) pharmacy staff can search by ‘Date Range’ to view all live prescriptions which are held on the NHS Spine for their site, within a set date range.

The information will be presented in a summary view filtered by ‘Prescribing Site’ and ‘Prescription Status’, for example ‘with dispenser’. Clicking on any underlined numeric value for each report will display a report containing the corresponding prescriptions.

Individual prescription information can then be accessed by clicking on the Prescription ID link.

Click on the prescribing site name provides contact details for the prescribing site. 

Clicking on the prescription count total number provides a link to a drilled down report of search results sorted by their prescription status.  

Prescribing site contact details. Close returns the user back to the summary statistics information. 

Users can also search for a specific patient by adding an NHS number to the date range search. Again the prescription ID will be available and prescription information can be viewed.

Click on prescription ID link to display prescription information. All patient and site search results are initially displayed in treatment type or issue or date order. These can be filtered differently by clicking on a column header.  

Patient name and prescription ID values are only displayed for resident users. 

Click on prescription ID link to display prescription information.

If the NHS Number is not known then this can be looked-up and selected using the new ‘Search for patient (NHS number)’ functionality (see image below).

Once you have identified the correct patient within the search results, click on the patient name. This will take you back to the search screen and automatically populate the search box with the NHS number.

Type in the details and then press the search key.  

The close button returns the user back to search results.

You can click on the patient details to select the patient. You will then be taken back to the search results.