Cegedim Supporting Patient Care during COVID-19

When we imagine the NHS under pressure during these unprecedented times, understandably, front of mind are the hospital staff caring for patients diagnosed with Covid-19 and other critically ill patients.

Yet, healthcare professionals across the country are having to take extraordinary measures to ensure continuity of care for all patients; from retired HCPs re-joining the workforce, to circumstances necessitating new, digital ways of staying connected with patients and staff.

Cegedim, through both its Vision GP IT solution and its Pharmacy Manager PMR, is supporting the NHS by making new functionality, resources, support and guidance available to ensure GP’s and pharmacy teams can get the most out of the tools available to them.

Support for Primary Care

GP’s are rapidly adapting their services around new ways of working to help manage the care of patients both at risk of and already affected by this latest outbreak. Vision has taken a number of steps to support them with a solution that includes the following:

Remote, Mobile Access & Shared Care

Cegedim already offers Vision Anywhere for mobile access & shared care, and has been working closely with GP practices, health boards and CCG’s to enable remote access to the full Vision 3 clinical system; allowing existing and returning GPs to provide continuity of care whilst working remotely.

Clinical Management of Covid-19

Cegedim has developed reporting and monitoring tools to help analyse, monitor and flag affected patients, to ensure effective clinical management of coronavirus-related consultations in line with the latest guidance from NHS National bodies across the 4 home countries.

A new clinical template allows for quick and concise recording of a patients travel history, vulnerability assessments, diagnostics and monitoring. The reports will help identify patients who may be eligible for a vaccine and as when it becomes available.

Extended Patient Services including telephone appointments, video consultations and patient-GP two-way chat.

Cegedim already offers text messaging solutions for keeping patients updated on practice, local and national advice, and sending health questionnaires. Vision Text Messaging can facilitate group messaging to provide patients with up-to-date information regarding new coronavirus procedures and support tailored information provided to a specific set of patients if necessary.

Doctors and clinical staff can also use Vision’s Consultation Manager to contact a patient directly via SMS from within the patient record. This again provides a rapid communication that alleviates pressure on both administrative and clinical staff.

Cegedim is also working with partners to establish links with video conferencing products, including AccuRx, DoctorLink and Attend Anywhere.

GP’s are encouraged to visit Vision’s dedicated COVID-19 webpage for the latest advice and information on supporting patient care; https://info.visionhealth.co.uk/coronavirus-advice 

Support for Community Pharmacy

Now more than ever patients are depending on their community pharmacy. Cegedim has taken a number of steps to ensure pharmacy teams can remain focused on their patients, including:

PMR Enhancements

In collaboration with the NHS, Cegedim have increased the length of time a user can be logged on to the SPINE.  As working hours are inevitably extended, this small change ultimately means less disruption and re-authentication of smartcards for time pressed pharmacy teams 

Alongside specific COVID-19 initiatives, Cegedim are pressing ahead even faster with plans to deliver efficiencies to pharmacy with the latest PMR releases focused on pharmacy time savers including one click access to the Summary Care Record and Real Time Exemption Checking (RTEC). Customers already report RTEC is ‘saving time and making life easier and safer in the pharmacy’.

Pharmacy Business Continuity

Cegedim has worked closely with the NHS to develop a secure method for the safe return of scripts to the spine to ensure that patient prescriptions can be redirected and the supply of patient medication is unaffected in the event of a pharmacy needing to close. If the pharmacy has an alternative site, Cegedim now also offer support to move essential PMR machines from the closed branch to new alternative premises allowing the pharmacy to continue to serve patients with minimal interruption.

Cegedim are also fast developing solutions to ensure pharmacies have the right support in the unfortunate event of fewer staff or a site closure as a result of COVID-19. This includes the new ability to remotely access the Pharmacy Manager PMR from another location.

Extended Service Desk Hours

In response to the changing pharmacy work patterns, Cegedim has introduced longer opening hours for its service desk, including Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, adding vital additional support.

Learning Zone

Cegedim has launched a new, free Learning Zone full of bite sized video content to help quickly upskill pharmacy teams who are either new to Cegedim’s Pharmacy Manager PMR, or returning to work to support a pharmacy. The Learning Zone is accessible anywhere and on any device, so pharmacists can refresh their PMR knowledge on their commute, at home or within the pharmacy.

Pro Delivery Manager (PDM)

With additional pressure to deliver more medicines direct to patients’ homes, Cegedim is offering all its customers 4 months free access to Pro Delivery Manager (PDM). PDM is a delivery tracking app which enables pharmacies to improve the efficiency of their delivery service, providing cost savings and enhancing patient relationships.

Cegedim and Pro Delivery Manager are working closely together to deliver a seamlessly integrated solution later this year, in the meantime Cegedim have quickly adapted the Pharmacy Manager PMR to export delivery patient information in a PDM ready format, allowing customers to take immediate advantage of the PDM solution.  

Steve Bradley, Group Managing Director, Cegedim UK, comments: “Cegedim, now more than ever, is committed to working together with the NHS and our customers to find and deliver the most effective solutions to healthcare challenges. Our business has shown incredible resilience over the last few weeks, and whilst mobilising its own staff to work remotely has assured the continued delivery of critical NHS services as well as the delivery of new features, support and services. It is our duty and commitment to continue to rise to the challenge of this current pandemic and help our customers to adapt and cope with increased demands – this is our commitment to our customers, to patients and to the NHS.”