march 2014 swindon & wiltshire local pharmaceutical...
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Swindon & Wiltshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee
March 2014
Newsletter
PharmOutcomes - coming to Wiltshire soon! Your LPC and Wiltshire Public Health have agreed
that from April 2014 all pharmacies in Wiltshire
will be required to record EHC, Supervised
Consumption and Needle Exchange services
using PharmOutcomes.
PharmOutcomes is an excellent tool which is not
difficult to use. It was launched in Swindon nearly
a year ago and pharmacists there find it simple
and very useful.
All claims in Wiltshire will be paid quarterly.
Payment claim forms and an audit report for the
service will be automatically generated; these can
be viewed and saved by the pharmacy, but do not
need to be sent by email or fax to your service
commissioner.
In this newsletter we will be showing you the
basics of using PharmOutcomes, with step by step
instructions and screen shots to help you get
started.
The PharmOutcomes Quick Start Guide provides
more information on the use of PharmOutcomes
and initial setup, including creating additional lo-
gons for your site. This can be downloaded from
www.psnc.org.uk/PharmOutcomes.
Logging in
Go to www.pharmoutcomes.org.uk You will see the screen below.
Fill in the user name and password you used for Pharmabase. If you can’t
remember your user name: click the ‘help’ link on the tool bar at the top of
the page.
This will take you to the following screen. Fill in your name and contact
details (including your store code or F-number) and PharmOutcomes
support will get back to you.
If you can’t remember
your password: Scroll
down the help page and
you will see the following
form:
Fill this in to get your
password sent by email.
PharmOutcomes
Page 2 Emergency Hormonal Contraception
Page 2 Needle Exchange
Page 3 Supervised Consumption
Page 3 Reports
Electronic Prescription Service release 2
Page 4
& 5
Claims
Page 6 Forms
Page 7 ID
Page 7 Ask Fiona
Page 8 Flying the flag for Community
Pharmacy
In this issue...
Page 2
Newsletter
Emergency Hormonal Contraception service The Emergency Hormonal Contraception Service is set up to
make recording and referral extremely simple.
1. To access the recording form, log in to PharmOutcomes
and click on ’Services’.
2. You will see a list of available forms on the left hand side
of the screen; click the ‘No Worries Wiltshire’ link under
Sexual Health.
To record an NX, once again click Services and choose
‘Needle Exchange Wiltshire’ from the left hand menu.
You’ll be pleased to hear that with PharmOutcomes you can
order replacement stock for Needle Exchange very simply
direct from the web site — click Needle Exchange Pack
Re-order Wiltshire on the Services left hand menu.
4. You will then see the module screen.
Complete your client details and click save; if you have
checked the button showing that the client has agreed to a
follow up, a referral will be automatically emailed to the
Outreach Nurses and you need take no further action (no
more faxing!)
You don’t have to keep any paperwork as the details will be
stored within PharmOutcomes; however if you are addicted to filing and don’t feel
right without piles of paper overtaking your dispensary, then once you have saved the
record, you can go back in and print it.
Needle Exchange service
3. You may be asked to enter letters from your security
word. This helps to protect sensitive data. If you cannot
remember your security word, click help and ask the
PharmOutcomes team to reset it for you. You will then be
asked to choose a memorable word next time you log in.
NX module screen
To see reports for the services you offer, Click on
‘Reports’ in the top menu bar. Scroll down to choose
the report you would like to see.
Viewing the ‘Provider audit reports’ for your services
will allow you to check whether you have entered any
duplicate entries. This is a good way to check whether
your technician got in first to input the data!
March 2014
Page 3
Accessing reports
This module allows you to make records of supervised
consumption transactions and allows you to capture the
information required by your service commissioner. This
information will be used by PharmOutcomes to produce a
monthly audit report and a claim for payment.
How to use the module
Before recording any transactions you need to add your
supervised consumption patients to the system, in the
Supervised consumption Wiltshire registrations form; this
can be accessed via the left hand navigation bar.
Recording supervisions
To enter a patient supervision, click Supervised
Consumption Wiltshire under the Services heading on the
navigation bar.
Supervised Consumption service
Once you start typing the client name it should give you a
drop down list from which you can select the correct entry.
At the end of each prescription
You MUST record your client data at the end of each
prescription — before you file it!
PharmOutcomes is supplied with very useful shortcuts which
allow you to save and add another record immediately:
End of month claims process and timetable
Payment claim forms and an audit report for the service will
be automatically generated by PharmOutcomes at the end of
each calendar month. These can be viewed and saved by the
pharmacy, but these documents do not need to be sent by
email or fax to your service commissioner.
THERE IS NOTHING TO DO AT MONTH END!
Page 4
Newsletter
Errors or Amends to the electronic claim message
Once an electronic claim message has been
sent to NHS Prescription Services for reimburse-
ment it cannot be amended or cancelled. If you
believe you have submitted a claim containing
an error you should contact NHS Prescription
Services in the same way you do for paper FP10
prescriptions.
NHS Prescription Services staff will contact you by
telephone to resolve any queries that arise whilst
processing EPS Release 2 prescriptions.
If the electronic claim message is rejected for a
technical reason, you will receive a reimburse-
ment rejection’ message on your system; this
means there is insufficient information to process
the claim. In this case you should call your system
supplier to investigate the problem.
The Electronic Prescription Service Release 2 (EPS R2) is an
informatics initiative undertaken in the English NHS, which is
designed to allow the transmission of prescription messages, digitally
signed, from primary care prescribers, via a central network and
server infrastructure (the Spine). Dispensing contractors are then
able to download the prescriptions from the spine and dispense them
before the prescriptions are subsequently passed on electronically to
the NHS prescription services for reimbursement.
for pre-payment certificates/
maternity exemptions certificates
among others, which the system
recognises. If the certificate expires
before the claim is submitted, then
the system recognises this and the
prescription can be switched.
Example: A prepayment certificate
expires on the 12th of the month,
Rx dispensed on the 6th so no
charges collected. If the claim is
sent post the 12th the Rx will be
switched to levy.
Expired prescriptions:
Pharmacies have reported a
significant number of EPS2 items
where payment has not been
received and the Rx has expired. An electronic prescription
has a validity of 6 months, once it has been uploaded to the
spine. If a claim notification has not been received by the
spine after 6 months then the prescription is removed. At
present, contractors do not have the ability to know whether
a dispensed notification has been successfully received by
The national evaluation of EPS R2 shows that this system
works technically, however, it so far offers weak benefits to
most stakeholders, and in some cases introduces new risks.
This article aims to highlight some of the risks associated
with claiming and provides some ideas to mitigate these
risks.
Risks
Bundle awitching:
Analysis of EPS prescriptions within a number of
organisations suggests that there has been a gradual
increase in the number of EPS items that are switched from
exempt to levy. There is a positive correlation between EPS
volumes and increased levels of exemption switching. The
pharmacy teams have the responsibility for adding patient
exemptions onto the system. This includes the expiry dates
When to send your claim
When a prescription is dispensed within a given month, the dis-
pense notification must be sent within that month and the elec-
tronic claim message must be received by NHS Prescription
Services before midnight on the 5th of the following month.
All electronic claim messages must be sent no later than 180
days after the dispense notification. Some pharmacy systems
will alert you to any unclaimed prescriptions that are nearing
the end of this period.
EPS2 claiming: getting it right By Rhys Martin, Lloyds Head of Central Operations (Acting) and LPC member
March 2014
Page 5
The term “electronic claim message” is used in this
article to describe the electronic claim that is sent when
you have dispensed the prescription and want to claim
reimbursement.
This may also be referred to as a “dispense claim
message‟, an “electronic reimbursement endorsement
message‟ or an “electronic reimbursement claim‟,
depending on the system you use.
The term “dispense
notification” is used in
this article to describe
the message that is
sent to EPS to confirm
that items have been
dispensed to the
patient.
This may also be
referred to as
“dispensed‟,
“collected‟ or
“complete‟,
depending on which
system you use.
Top Tips:
Check exemption status is correct before issuing
the prescription to prevent prescription switching.
Review part dispensed prescriptions monthly and if
required record as not dispensed (N/D) submit
claim and notify prescriber.
Review not collected prescriptions monthly. Con-
tact patient to arrange collection prior to
prescription expiry.
Review suspended endorsement queue on the
PMR system weekly to ensure all electronic Rx
endorsements are complete and a claim message
has been sent.
Compare the monthly claim message report on
your PMR with the FP34 report to ensure the
NHSBSA have received the correct number of
claim messages. Report any large discrepancies.
Ensure all collected Rx are issued and all issued Rx
are claimed. If you don’t claim you will not get
paid.
Re-submit all rejected claims received.
NHS Prescription services base payment solely on
information contained in the electronic
prescription message, therefore it is essential that
prescription charge exemption information is
recorded accurately in the electronic message to
ensure correct payment.
In the same way as now, specific endorsements
will still be required – such as endorsements to
claim broken bulk, out of pocket expenses. These
must be selected and submitted using the specific
codes provided together with any supporting
information.
Do not hand write your endorsements on a
prescription/dispensing token these will not be
used for pricing.
Check Rx filling solution weekly to identify any Rx
that have been handed out but not issued and
claimed.
the NHSBSA. Given current transmission issues related with
the spine, there are occasions where the message is not
being received. This could potentially result in prescriptions
being dispensed without payments being received. Beyond
system transmission issues, there are a number of
scenarios in which this is a potential problem
Part of the script is dispensed but there is a long term out of
stock resulting in a delay in the transmission of a claim
message.
Incomplete endorsement results in claim message not being
sent until the prescription has expired.
Rejected claims:
There are instances where prescription claim messages are
rejected and contractors will receive a claim rejection
message. One possible cause is a delay to the dispensed
notification message being received and the claim message
being received first. Any rejected claim needs to be
re-claimed in order to receive payment.
Useful sites for further info
http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PrescriptionServices/2473.aspx
http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PrescriptionServices/1972.aspx
http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/eps
Page 6
Newsletter
EPS2: so many forms, so little time...
RA01 – applying for a new smartcard (if you’ve never had
one before)
The applicant should fill in part one.
A Sponsor should sign at part two. The Sponsor only
needs to confirm ID if applicant has no passport or photo
driving licence (most people won’t need to bother).
Sponsors should be known to you in store; if not contact
Barbara Stratton or Fiona Castle.
An RA Agent (yours might be Fiona Castle, your area
manager, or your store owner) needs to meet the
applicant, check ID and take an e-photo.
RA03 Leaving the NHS completely
The sponsor in your final store should complete and submit
this form to the smartcard office in order you cancel your
smart card.
RA05 Change of details
If you have changed your name (e.g. by deed poll, marriage
or by adopting your previous name after a divorce), fill in this
form and submit the relevant proof to an RA Agent for
checking.
You probably know that there are a number of ‘registration
authority’ forms you may need to fill in for various reasons.
We have summarised what each form is for and what you
need to do with it; all forms are available on our web site
http://psnc.org.uk/swindon-and-wiltshire-lpc/ under ‘Quick
Links’.
All forms should be sent electronically to Barbara Stratton at the
SmartCard office [email protected]. If you can’t
scan or complete electronically, please fax your completed form
to Lis Jardine, who will forward electronically to Barbara Stratton.
You can also post them to the Central Southern Commissioning
Support Unit SmartCard Team, Registration Authority Office, Floor
4, David Murray John Building, Brunel Centre, Swindon SN1 1LH.
A number of early smart cards for
dispensary assistants were set up with-
out ‘set nominations’. Please complete
‘RA02 for Dispensary Assistants’
if you are affected.
RA02: EPS Enabled Pharmacist, Dispensing Assistant and Medicines Counter Assistant forms
Fill this one in if you have moved pharmacies or if you have not yet got the ability to nominate patients.
It is usually filled in by the applicant, although it can be filled in by a sponsor if details are known.
The code field means your store ODS/F code. If you are working at more than one store please add an asterisk in this field
and insert up to five store code numbers within the ‘Work Group Name’ field instead.
If you need to work at more than five pharmacies, request the locum code FFFF.
The Sponsor should be authorised by the NHS for all the ODS codes on your form.
Locums must be sponsored by Paul Clarke (Swindon) or Gina Bryant (Wiltshire). Please send your completed form to
Barbara Stratton with a note requesting that the relevant person signs your form.
RA02: Leavers form
Completing this is the responsibility of the sponsor in your OLD pharmacy.
The top two lines should be filled in then signed by your OLD sponsor.
RA02: Sponsor form
Fill in the first two lines. These forms should be sponsored by Paul Clarke (Swindon) or Gina Bryant (Wiltshire). Please send
your completed form to Barbara Stratton with a note requesting that the relevant person signs your form.
You must also fill in and submit a Sponsor Agreement form.
Any sponsor can sponsor an agent to work with them at the ODS codes that they have the sponsorship rights for.
Once you are a sponsor you can nominate an RA agent
RA02: Agent form
Fill in the first two lines. These forms should be sponsored by Paul Clarke (Swindon) or Gina Bryant (Wiltshire). Please send
your completed form to Barbara Stratton with a note requesting that the relevant person signs your form.
You must also fill in and submit an Agent Agreement form.
Once you are an Agent you can complete ID checks.
The same person can be an RA Sponsor and an RA Agent, but you cannot perform both roles for the same RA01
application.
Don’t be a secret agent! Make sure everyone in store knows you can perform ID checks.
March 2014
Page 7
Question: How do I get ID checks?
Answer: You will need to contact an RA
Agent who can take an electronic
photo for your card and verify your ID
(see box on the left for full details of
the ID you’ll need). Your RA Agent
might be an Area Manager, Store Manager or myself!
Question: My card is blocked, what should I do?
Answer: Contact the Smart Card office and ask for your card
to be unblocked—email Barbara Stratton at
[email protected] or phone 01793 444654.
Question: I have moved pharmacy, how do I update my
smartcard?
Answer: You will need to fill in RA02 for EPS enabled phar-
macists (download from our website). You will need to get
this sponsored by a sponsor for your new store and return it
to Barbara Stratton at the Smart Card Office.
Question: Who do I tell if it’s not working?
Answer: Contact the SmartCard Office as above.
Question: Why might it be working slowly or not at all?
Answer: If you are having problems with your IT, try running
through the troubleshooting guide at
http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/eps/library/disptsguide.pdf.
Depending on the problem you’re experiencing, you might
need to check with your system supplier, make sure cables
are secure, ensure you have the fastest possible internet
connection, try using someone else’s smartcard or check
with the GP surgery that they’ve actually sent through the
prescriptions.
Question: GP relationships are a little strained—they seem
to think EPS2 has nothing to do with pharmacy...
Answer: Remember that when a GP surgery is going live with
EPS 2 they have often just changed software and are feeling
overwhelmed by change. Don’t just ask for an
update: try to ask direct relevant questions such as
What are your plans regarding acute prescriptions
(will you use EPS or continue to print FP10s?)
Are you planning to use the repeat prescribing
function?
Explain that such issues are important to your workflow pro-
cesses as they affect how often you will be checking the
spine for new prescriptions
Who would you like us to contact when a prescription
that we expect by EPS goes missing into the ether?
Explain that if they print a bar-coded token for you in these
situations, it can be the only way to retrieve the prescription
or identify where it went. Remember the token itself is not a
prescription – there can be hundreds of copies printed, but
there remains only one electronic prescription.
Ask Fiona ID: what do I need? If you have a staff member who needs a
new Smart Card, they will need to fill in
an RA01 form and it will need to be
signed by both an RA Sponsor and an
RA Agent. The Agent will check you
applicant’s ID — so please make sure
the applicant has the following ID with them:
ID Checks for Smartcards
Three documents are required for identity checks, preferably
two photographic and one confirming address. However one
photographic and two confirming address is acceptable.
Photographic id
→ UK Passport
→ EU/Other Nationalities Passport
→ UK full (or provisional) driving license. Both photocard and
counterpart are required
→ An ID card relating to immigration status and permission
to work
If none of the above are available, certified photos are
required in the same way as when applying for a passport in
addition to two non-photographic documents confirming
identity.
Confirmation of address documents
→ Utility bill dated in the last 3 months
→ Bills in joint names acceptable
→ Council Tax bill dated in the last 12 months
→ Full old-style paper driving license
→ Financial (bank or similar) statement dated in last 3
months
→ Most recent tax coding notice
→ Mortgage statement dated in the last 12 months
→ TV license dated in past 12 months
Swindon & Wiltshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee
http://psnc.org.uk/swindon-and-wiltshire-lpc/
Members:
Nick Jephson (Chair)
Christopher Shields (Vice-Chair)
Robert Townsend (Treasurer)
Paul Hedge
Kantha Moodley
Paul Eyles
Steve Green
Shaun Hill
Cathy Jones
Rhys Martin
Kaushik Patel
Zoë Pearce
Will Pearce
Charlie Wu
Newsletter
Swindon & Wiltshire LPC
Chief Officer:
Fiona Castle
Tel/Fax: 01684 298459
Engagement Officer:
Lis Jardine
Tel/text: 07985 308539
Fax: 0808 1890757
Swindon and Wiltshire LPC are here to support all
pharmacies and their teams to deliver the best possible NHS services to patients
in this area.
Please contact us if you have any questions
or issues!
In February, Lis and Fiona manned a stall at the first
Wiltshire Council Health and Wellbeing Fair. We were
joined by a staff from Tesco Pharmacy in Trowbridge
who offered free blood pressure testing through the day.
It was a fantastic change to speak to both Council staff
and members of the public, as well as to catch up with
health projects active through Wiltshire and initiatives
starting up. We made some great contacts to follow up,
and raised awareness of the current services and huge
potential offered by Community Pharmacy!
Flying the flag for
community pharmacy
Lis has her BP checked by one of Tesco’s finest at
Wiltshire Council’s Health and Wellbeing Fair
Andrew Hobson welcomes the film crew for SoundDoctor to Jones
Pharmacy in RWB . Interviews were filmed for the next series of
clips on back pain. Visit http://thesounddoctor.org/