This article explains how patient profiles and conversation history will work differently once Scribe has been rolled out to your organisation.
⚠️ Your trust is connecting Accurx to your hospital system (your electronic patient record). From your trust's go-live date, how you search for patients and access historical conversations in Accurx will change. Please read this article carefully.
What's changing and why
Accurx is integrating with your trust's hospital system (your electronic patient record). This means that when you message a patient from your workspace's go-live date, Accurx will create a new patient profile based on their hospital number, rather than their NHS number.
This means that the previous Accurx profile for your patients and all conversations from before the change will still exist, but will not appear in Patient Search results. To find historic conversations, you will need to scroll through the inbox manually.
What's a hospital-system workflow vs a PDS-based workflow?
Hospital-system workflows look up patients by hospital number (or linked NHS number), with patient details pulled from the hospital system, e.g. your electronic patient record.
PDS-based workflows, on the other hand, look up patients by NHS number and date of birth, pulling details from the national NHS PDS database.
How Patient Search works after the change
Before the change, Patient Search in Accurx Web and the Accurx mobile app referenced the national PDS database. You could search by NHS number and date of birth, or use Advanced Search (first name, last name, gender, postcode).
Once your trust is connected, Patient Search will:
Reference your trust's hospital system instead of the PDS
Require you to search by NHS number or hospital number
No longer support Advanced Search (first name, last name, gender, postcode)
Return a new patient profile based on the hospital number, showing only hospital-system workflow conversations from your trust's go-live date onwards
⚠️ Please note: Patient Search will not show conversations from before the change. To find these, you will need to scroll through your inbox.
Which workflows are affected?
The workflows outlined below show how each workflow is affected once your trust is connected.
Hospital-system workflows
These workflows will use your electronic system to look up patients, and messages sent after the change will create a new profile in Accurx based on the hospital number.
Workflow | What's different after the change |
Clinic lists (if your trust uses clinic lists in Accurx) | Patient phone number is pulled from your hospital system instead of PDS. |
Single (ad hoc) messages | You can search by NHS number or hospital number. |
How to find historic conversations
If you need to view a patient's full conversation history, you will not be able to rely on Patient Search alone. Instead:
Go to your inbox in Accurx
Scroll through your conversations manually to locate the historic record for that patient.
Alternatively:
Go to the All conversations folder in your Accurx Inbox
Scroll through conversations manually to locate the historic record for that patient.
⚠️ Please note: This means that for a full audit trail of a patient's conversations, you will need to check both the patient's new profile and scroll through the inbox for any older conversations.
Example
Joe Bloggs (Example patient) has had 10 conversations in Accurx prior to your trust's go-live date. After your trust's go-live date, if you search for his NHS number or hospital number, his historic conversations listed below will not appear in Patient Search.
However, you can find them by going to All conversations in your Inbox and scrolling manually through the Open and Done tabs. Note that All conversations shows all communication with a patient across your whole workspace, giving you the most comprehensive view of their history.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still access conversations from before the change?
Can I still access conversations from before the change?
Yes, all previous conversations still exist. They just won't appear in Patient Search, but you can find them by manually scrolling through your inbox.
Will the patient's phone number change?
Will the patient's phone number change?
Once your trust is connected, for hospital-system workflows, the patient's phone number will be pulled from your hospital system rather than the PDS.
If your hospital system holds a different number to PDS, the message will be sent to the number in your hospital system.
Can I still use Advanced Search?
Can I still use Advanced Search?
No, Advanced Search (by first name, last name, gender, or postcode) will no longer be available once your trust is connected. You will need to search by NHS number or hospital number.
What if I message a patient I messaged before the change?
What if I message a patient I messaged before the change?
A new profile will be created for that patient based on their hospital number. Their previous profile (and conversations) will remain in Accurx but will only be accessible by scrolling through the inbox.
If you have any further questions or feedback, please get in touch with our support team using the message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page 👉