Learning about system change at the SNUG conference

Our recent SNUG annual conference on the 30th November, was held face to face for the first time in over 3 years, at the Westerwood hotel in Cumbernauld. In this episode we get a taste of the atmosphere at the conference and say hello to some of the attendees. The main focus for many people was the forthcoming GP system change, with every practice now planning a move to Vision over the couple of years.

We have edited highlights of a workshop which was really useful in setting out what practices will need to think about before they embark on the task of changing systems, especially important for EMIS practices, who will have to move to a brand-new system, requiring much preparation and re-training.

We hear hints and tips on what to do from Robin Cupples, and Dawn Ellis, GP IT facilitation managers with the NSS Re-provisioning team, and Dr Jim Campbell, former GP and clinical advisor to the national team.

What you can do now?  Deal with your patients that are registered for patient access; register for the Cegedim elearning; find and replace any local codes; tidy up your user list; think about what third party tools you need to use; and consider data cleansing.

Plan ahead for the migration period:  appointment books, data entry and Word / mailmerge templates and searches don't migrate, so those will need to be rebuilt in the new clinical system. Data validation and data mapping will be needed for the first cut of migrated data.

Plan for the Read- only period: let the patients know at a suitable time; plan for how clinical notes and prescriptions issued during downtime will be recorded; consider how will you manage when lab results and screen messages are switched off (just before the final cut of your data is taken).

Plan for Post migration: there will be training days and webinars. Clinical data will need to be re-entered, including allergies.

And we hear from Alex De Franco, the SNUG Business Manger on how she thought the conference went.

Contact the Re-provisioning team at: NSS.GPITRe-provisioniong-Scotland@nhs.scot

See the latest migration news at http://gpit.scot.nhs.uk (NHS net only)

Register for the Cegedim elearning Zone for videos and demos of Vision