Overview

As a Patchs Admin user you can:

• invite new staff to your Patchs practice
• update a staff user's role
• generate invitation links to copy & paste
• create group inboxes to aid collaborative working
• enable "All Practices" Inbox view

All of this can be done from your Manage Staff & Inboxes page, which can be accessed through your Patchs drop-down menu. This menu can be found in the top right-hand corner of your screen.

Inviting staff as Patchs Admin users

To invite a member of staff to register as a Patchs Admin user, you should:

1. Navigate to the Manage staff & inboxes page from your Patchs drop-down menu, as detailed above. Please note, if you are inviting staff at the same point as your practice being registered for the first time, you can skip this step.
2. Invite the staff user by following these steps:
   • Scroll to the bottom of your list of currently registered staff. You will see the heading, 'Invite Staff' and two blank boxes where you can enter the staff member's email address and select the role you want to assign them.
   • Enter the staff user's NHS email address in the box on the left.
   • Select 'Patchs Admin' from the drop-down on the right. It appears at the bottom of the list.
   • Finally, click on the blue button which says, Send Invite.

• The invited member of staff will be assigned the Patchs Admin role. Their details will now be visible on your list of Invited Staff at the very bottom of the page.
• The staff member you invited will remain on this list until they accept your invitation. You have the option to resend the invite by clicking on the relevant button, as shown below:

• Once they have accepted the invitation, their name will move up to your list of Registered Staff:

Please note that as a Patchs Admin user you are able to (i) edit your practice and (ii) manage staff, but you are not able to access inboxes.

To access inboxes you must give yourself another staff role at the practice.

This is usually done when setting up your practice, but if you missed that step you can always give yourself a staff role later.

To give yourself a staff role you should:

• Navigate to the Manage Staff & Inboxes page from your Patchs drop-down menu, as detailed above.
• Scroll down to the Invite Staff heading.
• Enter the email address you registered your Patchs account with in the box on the left.
• In the box on the right, use the drop-down menu to select a role other than 'Patchs Admin'. This should be a role which reflects your actual role within the practice.

• Press the Send Invite button.
• You should now appear twice in the Registered Staff list - once in your role as Patchs Admin, and once as the role you just selected.
• Now you will need to logout then log back in again.
• You will now be able to access inboxes.

Inviting staff to register for Patchs

If you have the Patchs Admin role, you will be able to:

• Invite additional Patchs Admins
• Invite other members of staff to register as Patchs users - see below

• Generate an invitation links to copy and paste - see below

• Adding EMIS Usernames (EMIS Practices Only) - see below

Inviting staff to register as Patchs users

To invite a member of staff to register as a Patchs user at your practice you should:

• Navigate to the Manage Staff & Inboxes page from your drop-down menu, as detailed at the top of this page. Please note, if you are inviting staff at the same point as your practice being registered for the first time, you can skip this step.
• Invite the staff user. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. Enter the staff user's NHS email address.
  2. Select their role.
  3. Click Send Invite.

⚠️ If you want to add the same member of staff to multiple Patchs sites, invite them to one site first, let them complete the registration process there, then invite them to the additional sites afterwards. ⚠️ 

• After you click Send Invite, an invitation email will be sent to the staff user.  

• The invited staff user should follow the click here link in the email in order to complete their registration. Alternatively, they can copy the full link into their browser.
• Once they have done this, they will see this page:

• They should fill out all mandatory fields and the click the blue button which says: Create an account. This will complete their registration:

• A Registration complete message will appear to confirm their registration.
• The staff member can chose to click on the button which says Take me to my inbox. If they do, the page will navigate the user to their Request Inbox.

Creating invitation links

As a Patchs Admin user you can generate an invitation link to copy and paste, and send directly to other staff members.

You can do this either:

• when inviting the staff user. Click on the blue button on the far right which says Copy invite link:

or:

• after you have invited the staff user. If the staff user hasn't received their invitation, click on the icon in the COPY NEW LINK column on the far right of the screen.

Adding EMIS Usernames (EMIS Practices Only)

Patchs Admin users at practices with EMIS integration should include EMIS Usernames when managing staff details, as shown below:

Updating a staff user's role

No change to role type
(clinical ->clinical or non-clinical->non-clinical)

If the staff users new role type is the same as their current role type then to change their role,  you should:

• Navigate to the Manage Staff & Inboxes page from your Patchs drop-down menu, as detailed above.
• Scroll down to the Invite Staff heading.
  
• Enter the email address of the staff  user whose role you want to update.
  In the box on the right, use the drop-down menu to select their new role.
• Click Send Invite.
  
• This will update their role and you will see the new staff role alongside their name in the list of staff users

  

Change of role type
(clinical ->non-clinical or non-clinical->clinical)

If the staff user's new role type is different to their current role you should:

• Ensure that the staff user doesn't have any Patchs messages or tasks assigned to them
• Navigate to the Manage Staff & Inboxes page from your Patchs drop-down menu, as detailed above.
• Remove the staff user
  
• Scroll down to the Invite Staff heading.
  
• Enter the email address of the staff  user whose role you want to update.
  In the box on the right, use the drop-down menu to select their new role.
• Click Send Invite.
  
  
  
• This will update their role and you will see their new staff role alongside their name in the list of staff users
  
  
  

Creating Group Inboxes

Group inboxes are a way to assign requests to a shared space.

Doing this can be useful, because then multiple users are able to action requests - for example, out of hours teams, script clerks, or secretaries.

To create a new group inbox for your practice you should:

• Select the Group inboxes tab on the Manage Staff & Inboxes page:

• Give your group a name and role. Then click the Add button:

The new group inbox is now created. You can assign requests to the new group inbox for the team to work on straight away.

The 'All Practices' inbox view

This feature is only available upon request. It is available to eHubs, PCNs, and group practices who want their staff to manage Patchs requests using combined practice inboxes.

All Practice Inbox Settings

To enable the All Practice inbox view:

• Navigate to the Manage Staff & Inboxes page, from your Patchs drop-down menu, as detailed at the top of this page.
• Select the Group Inboxes tab.
• Tick the Enable All Practice inbox view box.

You will be asked to agree to the following advisory notice:

Click the blue OK button to proceed.

The feature is now enabled. When you go to your Group inboxes tab, you will see a yellow warning banner:

The banner highlights the fact that Group Inbox names need to have the same name and same spelling. This is to ensure that they become viewable as a single collective inbox, in the All Practice view.

All Practice inbox workflow

Below is an example workflow of a GP who works across 3 practices, with All Practice inbox view enabled.

The GP can navigate between practices by using the Patchs drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

From the drop-down, they can select My Practices. This will take them to a page which lists all the practices they work at.

My Inbox - each individual practice

Practice 1 - Advanced EMIS Practice = 1 request

Practice 2 - Advanced Demo Surgery = 1 request

Practice 3 - Test Practice = 3 requests

My Inbox - All Practices = 5 requests

Clicking on the All Practices view will show all requests across all the practices, combined: