This article describes the Accurx desktop behaviours for saving to the medical record and accessing relevant records when necessary.
Please note, our web-based product, Accurx Web, does not have any link to an EPR; this article is in reference to our Accurx Desktop product, used by organisations running EMIS, SystmOne or Vision.
Accurx access to the patient record 🔓
Accurx Desktop is able to connect to EMIS, SystmOne or Vision via an API, an interface provided by the medical record system which allows it to read and write from it. This access is strictly controlled and is only possible when the relevant access is given in the EPR (i.e. EMIS' EMAS manager settings, device approval in SystmOne, or specific remote installation for Vision).
Regular messages save under the user who sent the message 💬
When a user wants to send an individual message or a batch message, Accurx Desktop will look up the relevant patient details (e.g. name, DOB, NHS number and mobile number). This access will show up in any audit logs as the staff member who was sending the message and logged in to the EPR at the time.
Some Accurx actions access the EPR under any currently logged-in user 📅
Some of our features allow messages to be set up in advance or involve interacting with the appointment book (Appointment Reminders, Scheduled messaging and Self-Book).
For these cases, it's important we check the medical record for up-to-date information, to:
Check for the patient's latest mobile number
Check the patient is still alive, and still registered to the practice, to avoid any upset or confusion by messages sent
Maximise the chance of an appointment being booked successfully
In order to perform these checks, Accurx accesses the medical record via any approved staff member who is currently connected to their EPR. This will happen for the following behaviours:
When a scheduled message is triggered to send (i.e. messages that have been scheduled to send in the future and appointment reminders)
When a patient books or cancels an appointment using our 'self-book' functionality which allows patients to book directly into the EPR appointment book.
Please note: this may mean that an audit trail would show logs of unrelated staff members accessing a record, but this log will refer to an automated Accurx action that was performed while that staff member's Accurx Desktop toolbar was connected to their EPR.
If you ever need clarification on an audit log, please do get in touch with us and we can confirm whether the action was performed by a user or was an automated check. SystmOne or EMIS should also be able to provide this information for you.
Saving copies of messages to the patient record 💾
When you send messages to patients, we save a copy of this in the patient record. This is saved under the name of whoever was sending the message and logged in to the EPR at the time.
Accurx also saves any relevant SNOMED codes attached to the message.
In EMIS, messages are saved into the Consultations and Care History screens:
In SystmOne, messages are saved into the New Journal:
In Vision, messages are saved into the Conversion view. Please note that, unlike EMIS and SystmOne, SNOMED codes are not saved automatically into the Vision record and these should be added manually.
Similarly, any responses (for instance, when you 'Allow patient to respond') are also saved to the record, only when you choose to 'Save to the record':
Batch messages
Messages sent using our batch messaging feature are also saved to the record as above.
Responses to batch messages come to the Accurx inbox by default for you to choose to 'Save to the record' as above. For some batch message responses, you can choose to skip this step and save to the record automatically (for instance, questionnaires like smoking status which don't need clinician review.
accuBook
COVID invitations sent from accuBook are saved to the record in the same way as above - you can read more on this here. One thing to note is that appointment reminder messages are not saved to the record.