We’ll be exhibiting at Primary Care 2012 over both days, so if you’re going do pay us a visit.

Our stand is G141b.

The event is completely free of charge to attend and more info can be found here:

http://www.primarycare2012.co.uk/

Look forward to seeing you there!

QOF 2012/13

Look out for these updates in PatientChase as soon as they are reflected in Population Manager.

Postal costs are set to increase considerably at the end of April.

Here’s how PatientChase can help offset these costs in two distinct ways:

Send co-morbidity letters
Many patients are on more than one register.

Rather than send them letters for each condition, why not send one letter which incorporates all their reviews?

PatientChase’s Search Builder couldn’t make it simpler to select multiple conditions or QOF targets.

You’ll save on postage costs, clinic slots and make visiting the surgery more convenient for the patient.

Create repeat prescription label reminders
A very high proportion of QOF patients are on repeat prescriptions.

Many practices using PatientChase take advantage of this fact by using the label printing tool to issue review reminders to patients via their scripts.

Clearly, there are no postal costs associated with this but you still reach your target population.

Click here for a case study on how PatientChase helps reduce costs with it’s label printing tool.
Click here for the user guide on how to create labels.
Click here for a video tutorial.

In other words, PatientChase creates the list of co-morbidity patients to be contacted and your preferred texting tool sends out the invites.

This way a patient receives just the one message, even if they are on several registers. Less work for you,  more convenience for the patient.

Click the image for an example:

Here’s how to create your list of co-morbidity EMIS/Patient numbers:

1) In PatientChase, select the combination of QOF targets or registers you wish to target.

2) Right click over the name of the search you’ve just created and select ‘Export Search Results to Excel’.

Excel then opens a spreadsheet where the first column is EMIS/Patient numbers of the patients you’ll be contacting.

3) Save the spreadsheet in the format required by your texting tool. Typically this is CSV (comma delimited).

4) Import this list into your texting tool and send out the SMS invites.

Changes from the previous version are:

• Fixed issue when trying to enter large batches of letters into EMIS. Any letters that fail to insert are identified, enabling you to reinsert them at a later date (pending updates from EMIS to fix this).
• Fixed issue with ‘Locating the Shared Database’ upon start up.
• Fixed issue with errors in syncing with PatientChase if EMIS password has recently changed.
• PatientChase database encrypted using 256-AES.

3 steps:

1) In EMIS Population Manager, make sure the ‘Look Ahead’ date is set to ‘End of financial year’.
2) In PatientChase, click the ‘Threshold’ button.
3) Print letters or labels. Or both.

Removing unwanted targets from the Threshold Search
You may wish to remove certain targets from your results, most notably Records 23 – No Smoking Status.

To do so, click the ‘Edit’ button, deselect the target/s and click the ‘Finish Search’ button.

Do you manage the QOF for a GP partnership, group practice or perhaps a GP Consortium?

It’s very easy to load PatientChase with patient data from numerous sites, then switch between figures for each site when required.

All from one PC and one copy of PatientChase.

If you’d like to know how, get in touch and we’ll set you up in 5 minutes.

To view the complete user guide click here

If you’re interested in a particular topic, click on one of the links below.

The main screens of PatientChase
How do I create my own letter template?
How do I create QOF letters?
How do I create month of birth letters?
How do I create searches which I can export to Excel?
How do I filter or merge a search with other data?
How do I create invite labels for repeat prescription patients?
How do I exception report and find out which patients have been sent letters?
How do I share searches?

This guide replaces previous versions.

Don’t forget - There are also various tips on using PatientChase on this website. Select ‘tips’ from the Topics menu to the right.

However, you may encounter the following message “only works with .docx format” if you’ve installed PatientChase 2.0 yourself.

PatientChase’s default configuration is set to work with Word 2007 or Word 2010 and this message indicates that you’re running an older version of Word.

It’s very easy to change this setting.

Go to > Advanced > Options > Using older versions of Word > Click OK.

If this is the case, there’s a very easy, automated way to flag up such patients within any of your PatientChase recall lists.  This way you’ll be safe in the knowledge that your mail merges will not include any of these patients.

Start recording in EMIS
In the first instance, you’ll need to create a custom Read Code in EMIS to record such patient requests.

DT-C-M-F will allow you to create a new Read Code in EMIS.

Whenever a patient asks that you stop sending them letters, make sure you use this Read Code in their medical record.

Removing them from PatientChase searches
These patients can be automatically highlighted and removed from any PatientChase search by doing the following:

1. Run your PatientChase search.
2. Run an EMIS search to find all the patients with the custom Read Code. The only field required is Patient Number.
3. Export from EMIS list into Excel and Save.
4. In PatientChase, load the Results View of your search.
5. Right click and ‘Select Patients from Excel Export’ (see screenshot below).

6. Find your Excel file and Open.
7. Matching patients will be highlighted (see screenshot below).

8. Right click and ‘Delete Patients from Search’.

Your mail merge will no longer include patients who do not want letters.

You can apply the above process to any set of patients you’ve exported from EMIS.
In other words, filter any PatientChase search with any criteria you wish.

Examples: Housebounds, nursing home patients, recently deceased, usual or registered doctor, branch site patients, QOF+ patients, CKD with PVR patients.