NHS e-referral Service Archived Referrals In order to maintain system performance in the NHS e-referral Service, any referral which has had no actions being carried out for more than 18 months will be moved to the NHS e-referral Service Archive. All records, including appointment requests and advice and guidance requests, are affected. Records in the Archive are accessible via the Archive Viewer, which are only available to Referring Clinician and Referring Clinician Admin roles. Records that are moved into the Archive will be deleted in the live NHS e-referral Service application. The Archive Viewer will have the same safety protocols as any smartcard accessible application. Accessing Referrals in the Archive Viewer When users log in to the NHS e-referral Service as a Referring Clinician or as a Referring Clinician Admin, a patient should be searched for as normal in the Patient tab. The Patient Activity List will load, and a View Archive button is available. Clicking this will launch the Archive Viewer in a new window. The Archive screen lists UBRNs for the selected patient, where the last activity was more than 18 months ago. Where no archived UBRNs exist for the selected patient, the message There are no archived referrals for this patient will display. Clicking on a UBRN in the worklist will generate a Zip File Generation dialog box. The archived zip file contains all the referral information, such as history and attachments. For this reason the zip file is password protected. A unique password is created each time an archived UBRN is retrieved. Clicking Copy Password will save the unique password to your clipboard for use later in the process; this password is required in order to open the zip file. Clicking on the Download Zip File button will commence the process Please note: a Security Warning is displayed on the dialog box which reminds users to clear their temporary internet files after accessing any referrals in the Archive; this ensures that no patient identifiable information is held on the user s computer. Once the zip file is downloaded, users can choose to access the encrypted file in one of two ways: 1. Open This option will show the contents of the file and allow users to open and extract the file 2. Save This option will allow users to save the whole file to a specified place before it can be opened and extracted. For both options, users will need to extract items from the zip file and provide the password when prompted. Once the password has been entered successfully (it can either be typed directly or pasted from the clipboard) the record will be displayed in Portable Document Format (PDF).
Clearing Temporary Internet Files What is a temporary internet file? Whenever you visit a website a temporary internet file is opened and stored on your computer. This file allows you quick access to the website the next time you visit it and remembers details of your visit. Why it is important to clear temporary internet files? Each zip file you open using the Archive Viewer will be held as a temporary internet file on your computer, and this information will stay on your computer even after you exit the Archive Viewer. As information retrieved from the Archive will include patient information, it is important to remove this information from your computer. Temporary internet files need clearing manually by users. Once you clear the temporary internet files the information will no longer be accessible by unauthorised people. Internet Explorer 1. Select Tools or the cog icon, followed by Internet Options 2. Under the General tab, select the Delete button in the Browsing History section. 3. Depending on your version of Internet Explorer, in the Delete Browsing History dialog box either: a. under the Temporary Internet Files section, select Delete Files, or b. ensure that the checkbox next to Temporary Internet files and website file is ticked and click Delete 4. Click Yes if a Delete Files warning box appears. Firefox 1. Click on the Firefox button (3 horizontal lines). 2. Click on Options 3. Click on the Advanced section 4. In the advanced tab, go to the Network tab. 5. Click the Clear Now button next to the sentence that shows how much hard disk space your cache takes up. Google Chrome 1. Click on the menu button (3 horizontal lines) 2. Click on Settings 3. Click on History at the top left
4. Click Clear browsing data and select an appropriate time period 5. Click Clear browsing data 6. Close and reopen Chrome for the changes to take effect Safari 1. Click on Safari in the menubar 2. Click on Reset Safari 3. Make sure that Remove All Website Data is checked 4. Click on Reset Service Providers Service Providers are not able to view referrals where there has been no activity for 18 months or more. This affects all records - Referrals and Advice & Guidance requests/responses which users might try to access via an enquiry. Although service providers with CAS functionality have a referring role as part of the refer on process, this role does not have a Patient Activity List. Therefore, this role is not able to view archived referrals. Any service provider needing to see archived referral information should follow existing procedures via their Caldicott Guardian. Alternatively they may be able to resolve their query through discussion with the original referring organisation. Frequently Asked Questions A. If I use the UBRN to search for a referral in the Patient Tab why isn t it displayed? a. It may be that the referral has been archived. You should search on the patient s NHS number or demographic details to be able to view all records for that patient, on the NHS e-referral Service and in the archive. B. Why is there a Show All Non-Archived Referrals checkbox on the Patient Activity List? a. The Patient Activity List only shows referrals with no activity within the last 18 months by default. However, if there are multiple referrals in a care pathway, only once the whole of the care pathway is over 18 months old will the referrals be archived. Any such referrals can be brought into the Patient Activity List by selecting the checkbox. C. In the zip file there is an XML file, what is this for?
a. The XML (Extensible Markup Language) file contains details of all the information relating to the referral and is used to create the pdf. We recommend that you open and view the referral using the pdf. D. What are the hyperlinks in the pdf for? a. The hyperlinks allow Referring Clinician/Referring Clinician Admin staff to view attachments linked with the referral. E. Why won t the attachment open? a. In early releases of Choose and Book (NHS e-referral Service predecessor) it was possible to add an attachment to a referral without a file extension e.g..doc,.xls so there may be files without a file extension held within the archived files. To view an attachment with no file extension you should select the attachment and when the open with pop up box appears select the appropriate option e.g. word, excel, and the information with the file should then be displayed. This behaviour in the archive is the same as on the live system. F. What does clinical context mean? a. The clinical context is a combination of the specialty and clinic type; it will always show the details as at the time the referral was made. b. Note: Referrals created prior to mid-2005 do not display the clinical context. G. I manage a Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) and so act as both a referrer and provider. Why can t I have access to the Archive Viewer? a. The original referrer has the legitimate relationship with the patient. As a referrer within a CAS you are acting on behalf of the original referrer to onward refer the patient. Once this has happened you no longer have a legitimate relationship with the patient. H. I use the BMS Admin role, which shows the Patient Activity List when I search for a patient s referrals. Why can t I see the Archive Viewer? a. The BMS Admin role does not have access to clinical information and the archived referrals contain all related clinical information for that referral. I. As a service provider we sometimes need to access information relating to an old UBRN for clinical validation reasons. Is there a way the Organisation s Caldicott Guardian can make a request so that we can access a particular record, where clinically appropriate, once it has been archived? a. If you need to access data that is not present on the live system, e.g. for a patient subject access request or an audit request, then you will need to contact the NHS Referrals Caldicott guardian (Stephen Miller) stephen.miller@hscic.gov.uk or email e.referrals@hscic.gov.uk. J. How secure are the referrals in the Archive?
a. Archived referrals have the same level of security applied to them as the referrals in the live system.