This feature is still in the pilot stage.
What is this new functionality? 🤔
Cross-organisational booking allows practices to send individual Self-Book invitations for a different site within their hub or PCN.
With our simple and easy-to-use booking software, you can:
Reduce the administrative burden of booking patients into different sites
Share capacity with healthcare organisations in your area
Enhance patient access with greater choice
This functionality can be used to send invites for enhanced access appointments, specialist services i.e. ARRS appointments and other proactive, urgent or routine appointments hosted at a different site within your PCN or hub.
Currently, this feature is only available for individual self-book messages.
How does it work? 🧐
This functionality uses a GP Connect integration to allow bookings across sites. Your pilot lead (specified in the launch email) has agreed on a specific configuration that practices should use to book/receive appointments, which the Accurx team has set up.
For practices set up to book cross-organisationally, an additional step will appear in the Self-Book flow, allowing users to select a different site/organisation. 👇
The patient will see the site they are booking into throughout the booking process.
Once the patient confirms their appointment, they will be added to the receiving organisation's appointment book.
Frequently asked questions 💬
How did I get set up to send or receive bookings with other sites?
How did I get set up to send or receive bookings with other sites?
Our team has discussed the configuration of receiving vs. booking sites with your pilot lead (as specified in the launch email). The launch email you received will specify whether you are configured to book appointments, receive appointments or both.
Will this work for any appointment type?
Will this work for any appointment type?
This functionality will work for any slot type as long as it has been marked as GP Connect bookable.
As a booker of appointments in other organisations, what do I need to do?
As a booker of appointments in other organisations, what do I need to do?
Nothing aside from sending out invites! You would already have been set up by the Accurx team to book appointments with organisations agreed by your pilot lead. You should see the organisation selector appear when you initiate a Self-Book invite. 👇
Do we have to pay more for this feature?
Do we have to pay more for this feature?
This functionality is part of our Booking module, which is a paid-for feature.
Is there any tracing work the receiving site needs to do when a patient booking is received?
Is there any tracing work the receiving site needs to do when a patient booking is received?
No, as this is handled through the GP Connect integration, which automatically traces the patient if they are already registered in the receiving site’s clinical system, or temporarily registers them.
How is the patient’s medical records updated at the point of care?
How is the patient’s medical records updated at the point of care?
The invitation will be saved to the patient’s medical record, but beyond this, the patient record does not transfer over to the receiving site and the appointment will not be written back to the record.
If both organisations use EMIS, the receiving site may be able to use EMIS’ consultation Write-Back feature: https://www.emishealth.com/products/emis-web/consultation-write-back
Why does it sometimes take a while to load the appointment slot availability?
Why does it sometimes take a while to load the appointment slot availability?
Cross Organisation Booking works by interacting with Accurx, GP Connect (an NHS service) and your clinical system (e.g. EMIS, SystmOne). As a result, how slow or fast it is can be influenced by many factors:
How your clinical system is performing in general
The volume of appointment slots being searched for
The configuration of your appointment slots
What will patients see if no appointments are available?
What will patients see if no appointments are available?
The patient won't be able to book an appointment. They will see a message telling them to try the link again in a few hours as some appointments might become available 👇
Seeing the error 'Add a user role in your clinical system to continue'
Seeing the error 'Add a user role in your clinical system to continue'
GP Connect requires a role to be present in the medical record system in order to book Cross-Organisational appointments using Self-Book links.
If you are seeing this error, you need to add a user role within your medical record.
How to edit a user role in Emis:
Go to Configuration > Organisation Configuration > Users. Select the user, click Edit User in the ribbon, select Role in the left-hand pane to assign the appropriate role. 👇
How to edit a user role in SystmOne:
Go to Setup > Staff & Organisation setup > select the user > Amend Staff > Local Settings > Employment role. 👇
Seeing the error 'Add your full name to book in to this organisation'
Seeing the error 'Add your full name to book in to this organisation'
GP Connect requires users to have their full name on their account to send Cross-Organisational Self-Book links.
To resolve this issue, click on the link in the error message 👇
Use the pop up to add your full name to your account 👇
Seeing the error 'No appointments available. Check slots and try again'
Seeing the error 'No appointments available. Check slots and try again'
If the system hasn't picked up any bookable GP Connect appointments, you won't be able to send a Cross-Organisational Self-Book link 👇
Check your medical record system to see if any GP Connect appointments are available. If you can see that appointments are available and bookable, please start a live chat with our support team by clicking the green bubble in the bottom-right corner of this page.
If no appointments are available, please send the Self-Book link later, once appointments have become available.
Seeing the error 'Something went wrong. Try again'
Seeing the error 'Something went wrong. Try again'
This happens when GP Connect fails to connect to Accurx. Please try again. If the issue persists, start a chat with us using the green message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page.
Seeing the error 'Check patient details in your clinical system and try again'
Seeing the error 'Check patient details in your clinical system and try again'
Please check that the patient's details match those in the Personal Demographic Service and those held by the organisation you want the patient to book with.
If you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to chat with us using the green message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page. 👉