www.northgateps.com

OptoMize Scotland

Letter Management

v5.0 May 2020

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OptoMize Scotland - Letter management v5.0

April 2020 2 of 13

Contents

1. General Information ......................................................................................... 3

2. Letter management .......................................................................................... 3

2.1 Accessing Letter management ................................................................. 3

2.2 Searching for letters ............................................................................. 4

2.2.1 Basic search ....................................................................................... 4

2.2.2 Advanced search.................................................................................. 5

2.2.3 Search results ..................................................................................... 6

3. Viewing letters ............................................................................................... 8

3.1 Changing delivery methods ..................................................................... 9

3.2 Updating delivery method in groups .......................................................... 9

3.3 Setting available delivery methods .......................................................... 10

4. Sending letters ............................................................................................. 11

4.1 Bulk sending (batch printing) ................................................................. 11

4.1.1 Letter queue control ........................................................................... 11

4.2 Single letter sending ........................................................................... 12

5. Superseding letters ........................................................................................ 13

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1. General Information

In this document, the word Click will be used during certain steps, unless otherwise specified this

refers to a left (or primary) button click with the mouse.

When using letter management, you may need to click on the [Finish], [Cancel] or [Back] button.

These are located in the top left-hand corner of the screen (Figure 1).

Figure 1

2. Letter management

2.1 Accessing Letter management

Managing bulk printing for all letters is available within OptoMize, you can send groups of letters to

print, manage print jobs, follow up failed print jobs and ensure that all correspondence is printed

correctly.

The Main activities screen allows access to Letter management providing you have the relevant

permissions assigned to you (Figure 2).

Note: The Main activities screen may look different to Figure 2 depending on the role that has been

assigned to you.

Figure 2

This is the Finish button

This is the Cancel button

This is the Back button

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Click on the link for Letter management, under the Clinical tasks list. You will be taken through to

the Letter management screen (Figure 3).

Figure 3

2.2 Searching for letters

There are a range of search options available to you, they are split into two groups, basic search and

advanced search. When you first enter the page, the advanced search options will always be

minimised and thus hidden.

2.2.1 Basic search

There are several options that can be used to search through the letters within the system,

accessible on entry to the Letter management screen. These include Letter status, Recipient

location, Letter type and Delivery method.

The letter status option allows you to select letters based on their status. These cover:

Cancelled – Any letters that have been cancelled.

Cancelled (Deceased) – Any letters that have been cancelled due to the patient being marked as

deceased.

Completed – Any letters that have successfully been sent out.

Deleted – Any letters that have been deleted.

Deleted (Undone) – Any letters that have been deleted due to the patient having gone through

Undo grading.

Failed – Any letters marked as failed to print.

On Hold – Any letters that have been placed on hold due to a post office return.

Pending – Any letters that have yet to be printed.

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Superseded – Any letters that have been marked as superseded due to a patient pathway

update.

You can filter the results by Recipient location. This is useful for finding all of the correspondence

that has been sent to a single GP location. Type in the location code or the beginning of the name

into the search box and the results will be shown for you to select from. Alternatively click on the

ellipse (…) button to the right of the search field to open a more detailed location search.

The Letter type box allows you to filter by the exact letter you are looking for. This will list the

type of every single letter that has been generated in your system. It will show the recipient type

(patient, ophthalmologist etc.), the letter name, and the letter code.

To the right of this drop-down menu, is a small button (Figure 4). Clicking this will adjust how the

Letter type is ordered. By default, the list is ordered alphabetically and the button will show an

‘AZ’. When you click it, the list will adjust to be ordered by letter number, and the button will

show ‘09’ (Figure 5).

Figure 4

Figure 5

The last option within basic search is the Delivery method. This menu has up to 5 options depending

on which methods you have enabled. See section

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Changing delivery methods for more details.

2.2.2 Advanced search

The Advanced search options give even greater detail to filter the exact letters you wish to action.

To access the Advanced search options click on the arrow to the left of the Advanced… text. The

Advanced search options will then be displayed (Figure 6).

Figure 6

The advanced options are:

Patient active in SCI Diabetes – so you can filter and for example cancel letters if you know they

will be generated in SCI Diabetes.

Date generated – date of letter generation.

Date printed – date the letter was first printed.

Printed by – personnel search to view letters printed by the selected personnel.

Patient name or Id – filter results to a specific patient’s letters.

Demographic – select the demographic required and look for letters relating to patients with the

corresponding demographic.

GP practice – filter to letters relating to patients assigned to a selected GP practice

Appointment location – filter to letters relating to an appointment located at a selected

location.

Date of appointment – filter to letters relating to an appointment on a certain date.

Date of encounter – filter to letters relating to an encounter on a certain date.

Last grading outcome – filter to letters relating to patients depending on their last outcome.

Template types – filter to either standard or large font template letters.

2.2.3 Search results

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Once you have selected the criteria you wish to apply to the search, click on the [Search] button to

load a list of the matching letters (Figure 7).

Tip: You can decide how the letters for locations should be displayed. In the top right corner of the

search options is a checkbox labelled Group by letter type. If you leave this unchecked the location

letters will be grouped by location, however if you check it, all letters of each type will be grouped

together.

Figure 7

The results will show below the search options and will list the letter, its delivery method and how

many there are.

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3. Viewing letters

You can view individual letters within a group from the letter management screen and modify their

delivery method and print or email then individually.

To view letters within a batch, first perform a search to locate the letter group in question. Then

either double-click on the group or highlight the group and click on the [View] button above the

search results. This will open the Letters screen (Figure 8).

Figure 8

To view one of the letters within the group, double click on the letter in question, or highlight it and

click [View] above the letter list. The letter will be displayed on the right-hand side of the screen.

If you wish to print a specific letter, highlight it and click on the [Send] button, this will queue the

letter using its selected delivery option.

To cancel the letter, highlight it and click on the [Cancel] button. You are also able to regenerate a

letter by highlighting it and clicking [Regenerate]. This will cancel the currently selected letter and

create it anew. This is useful should information have been updated (e.g. the patient address).

After you have sent a letter, you are able to either print or email a copy of the letter by clicking

[Print a copy] or [Email a copy]. This will not affect the letter and will simply pass a copy of the

letter to the print/email queue. This cannot be performed until the letter is marked as complete.

To go back to the main letter management screen, select the [Back] button.

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3.1 Changing delivery methods

Not all users will have access to change delivery methods. OptoMize supports multiple delivery

methods for letters. Depending on which methods that are enabled, choice from one of 5 methods

is available:

Email – Send letters via an Email system

iMail – If you have iMail set, this will send the letter to their printing services via a web service

Mesh – If you have DirectToGp enabled, you will be able to send results letters out to GP’s via

the Message Exchange for Social care and Health (MESH) gateway.

MiG – If you have MiG integration then this method will dispatch the letters electronically via

the Medical interoperability Gateway.

Post – The default method which sends the letters to a specified printer for dispatching by post.

If you wish to change the delivery method of the letter, highlight it and click [Change delivery

method]. This will open a small window allowing you to select which method you require. Click

[Finish] to save after making your selection (Figure 9).

Figure 9

3.2 Updating delivery method in groups

Instead of updating delivery methods for individual letters, you can update the delivery method for

all letters of a particular group at once.

To do this, first search for the pending letters you wish to change. Highlight the letter group you

wish to change (this could be per location, or all of a type depending on the Group by letter type

option selected) and then click on [Change delivery method] above the search results (Figure 10).

Figure 10

You will be presented with the Update delivery method pop-up (Figure 11). Select the method you

require from the drop-down menu and click [Finish].

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Figure 11

All the letters in the group will now be updated to the selected delivery method.

3.3 Setting available delivery methods

Not all users will have access to set delivery methods. You can individually specify which delivery

methods are available to each letter type. To do this, click on [Edit delivery methods] above the

list of letters. This will open the Edit delivery methods screen (Figure 12).

Figure 12

This screen displays a list of letters along with their available delivery methods and a category for

each letter.

‘Post’ delivery method will all be enabled by default and will remain as the fall-back method should

any of the others be unavailable.

MiG and iMail types will be available if the integration with these services has been set up.

Additional information is also displayed relating to each letter type. This covers if the letter is an

invitation, initial invitation, appointment, result or HES referral letter.

When sending a letter, OptoMize will attempt to use the letter recipients preferred delivery

method. If the delivery method is available for that letter type, it will use it. If it’s not available,

the system will fall back to Post method.

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4. Sending letters

4.1 Bulk sending (batch printing)

You can bulk send groups of letters from the Letter management screen. To do this, search for the

letters that you wish to send and then highlight the group of letters required from the search

results. Before queuing the letters choose the batch size; this is how many letters you want sent to

the printer as a single file (max 100). Click on the [Queue] button to add the group to the send

queue. The group of letters can also be dragged into the Letter queue by holding down the mouse

button on the group and moving it over the queue.

If the letter delivery method is Post you will be prompted to select the printer via the Windows

printer select dialogue.

Note: The letter queue defaults to a paused state when you enter the Letter management screen.

You can queue up groups of letters to be printed before un-pausing the letter queue.

Groups of letters that you have added to the letter queue will be displayed on the right-hand pane

(Figure 13).

Figure 13

4.1.1 Letter queue control

To un-pause the letter queue, click on the green ‘play’ button above the list (Figure 14).

Figure 14

When you un-pause the letter queue any queued letters will begin sending. Letters are sent

individually if the batch size is 1 so if there is a problem connecting to the printer/email server

OptoMize will be able to track which letters have been sent successfully or failed. If you send as a

batch OptoMize will be able to track which batch of letters failed rather than the individual letters.

There are 4 tab headings along the top of the right-hand pane which correspond to different status

of letters in the letter queue (Figure 15).

Figure 15

You can cancel a job that has been queued for sending or is in the process of being sent.

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To cancel the job, click on the group you require to highlight it and then click on the [Abort]

button. Cancelled jobs will appear under the Aborted tab.

If you abort a job whilst it is being processed, any letters that have already been sent will be

marked as completed and unsent letters will continue to be marked as pending.

Completed jobs will appear under the Sent tab heading and any failed jobs will appear under the

Failed heading.

Note: The list of jobs that are sent, failed or aborted will only be maintained whilst you are in the

Letter management screen, if you exit and return to the Main activities screen the list will be

cleared.

If you try to exit the Letter management screen whilst a letters are being processed you will receive

a message warning that if you exit, any unsent letters currently being processed in the queue will

not be sent (Figure 16).

Figure 16

You can highlight a group in the Letter queue and click on the [View] button above the list. This will

open a Letters page that lists all of the letters in the group and shows the individual status of each

letter. Click [Back] to close this page and return to Letter management.

Note: If two users are both using the Letter management to send letters on from different

computers and both try to send the same letters, only one copy of the letter will be sent. However,

the number of printed letters displayed when the job has completed may be different from the

number shown when the group was first listed in the letter queue.

Note: If is not recommended to log in to OptoMize twice under the same users account (on two

separate computers or by running the application twice on a single computer) and try to print

letters as you may end up sending two copies of letters under certain circumstances.

4.2 Single letter sending

Follow the steps in the Advanced search Error! Reference source not found.section to find the

letter you wish to print. Highlight it and click on the [Send] button, this will queue the letter using

its selected delivery option.

The letter will be updated to ‘Complete’ once the printing is successful.

Note: You can also find individual letters to patients through appointment and patient management.

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5. Superseding letters

Some letters can be superseded by actions further along the patient pathway. For example, an

invite letter is no longer needed if the appointment is subsequently cancelled.

This only applies to letters that are still pending (i.e. have not been printed) and it will never apply

to results letters.

The actions that trigger a check for any supersedable letters are:

Put a patient into an off-register (not deceased), excluded or ineligible state

Book a patient an appointment

Cancel an appointment.

OptoMize will then mark any pending letter that is configured to be superseded as such.