How will PATCHS support PCN’s/eHubs/OOH’s?
- PATCHS works well with PCNs/eHubs/Out of Hours services. With a single PATCHS login you can access all the practices in your network.
- For incoming messages, patients submit requests through their practice’s instance of PATCHS. This means patients do not need to know about the eHub and so have an easy and consistent experience – they just submit to their GP practice as normal, even out of hours.
- For outgoing messages, PCN/eHub staff can send messages (including questionnaires) and video consultations to any patient who is registered at a practice within the network.
- Clinical system integration: writing to the record uses the practice’s clinical system, so it doesn’t matter if the eHub/PCN uses EMIS Community or another version of EMIS.
- A unified inbox across all your practices allows you to see all incoming patient requests in one place without having to select a specific practice.
- The PATCHS toolbar currently does not work across multiple practices. Instead of using the toolbar to look up a patient, staff will need to search for patients using their NHS number.
Implementation details
- Staff members at the eHub/PCN need to be added to each practice and will each need a separate PATCHS login (one per user). We can help do this in bulk and are working on improvements to make this easier.
- EMIS practices will need to add a generic user (called e.g. PATCHS) to their practice’s EMIS instance. Use of this user will be fully audited in PATCHS.
