Technical and operations
No, the individual care home staff accounts will have access to all the residents for that care home, they then select which resident to order for.
They use the note functionality when ordering medication and any further follow up they can use their secure/NHSmail.
Yes, in the notes section.
On review of the medication cycle the care home lines up quantities of medication and requests any changes through the note functionality.
The item of medication needs to be fully reviewed by GP as if this is continually prescribed. It is likely that this can be put on a repeat therefore can be ordered by proxy monthly. If weekly, then the normal process resumes.
By a secure email to the GP practice or by phone if urgent.
Yes, considerably.
This is different to e-MAR. Proxy access allows care homes to order medications online using GP systems, not the administration of medication.
The request for an acute medication is made via a note and these are recorded on the GP system but there is no way for the practice to confirm the note has been actioned.
Current process would not change to follow up any urgent issues to ring the surgery/pharmacy where needed or send an email if not urgent.
This is a local decision and needs to be discussed at the start of the project.
Care home staff can see if a prescription has been authorised on the Outstanding Prescription Request screen. If it’s not there, it is being processed. A proxy doesn’t have access to prescription history unless access to the summary record is also enabled. This would need to be agreed with the resident and is a local issue.
Hardware and internet access must be in place currently before you can set up proxy access.
There are several case studies you can read.
Supporting information:
- D21 – Case study – GP Online Services in Care Homes – ordering medications using proxy access.