The purpose of this document is to provide advice and guidance about the role and responsibilities of the ODS Organisation Codes Contacts (OC1). The leaflet also provides guidance around the process of requesting codes, priority (urgency) levels and the Helpdesks Service Level Agreements (SLA) in place that specify response and resolution deadlines. We would request that you read this document fully. Helpdesk All calls for the ODS team need to be logged with the Exeter helpdesk. The Exeter helpdesk are open from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) and can be contacted either by email at Exeter.helpdesk@nhs.net or by telephone on 01392 251289. The Exeter helpdesk will then give you a log number and the call will be passed on to the ODS team who will contact you. The SLA response and resolution deadlines are covered in more detail later in this document. OC1 Responsibilities Your responsibilities as the ODS organisation codes contact includes keeping the ODS team up to date with information regarding new sites, amendments to existing sites and site closures (please see below for guidance regarding closing site codes). It is a common misconception that a site set up with a code under a trust, denotes ownership. Though this is often the case, a trust does not have to own a site to have a site code for it. Site codes should be set up at any location where a trust has staff, responsibility for running a service that needs to be reported upon or requires an N3 connection. Requests to register new sites, amend existing sites and close sites will only be accepted from the registered OC1. Where the OC1 is away and the site code is required urgently, ODS will accept requests from someone else at your organisation but the OC1 will be copied into all emails so that they are aware of what has been done in their absence. It is recommended that your organisation registers two OC1s. However, we do not recommend setting up more than three OC1s at any one organisation. Changing your Contact Details The ODS team regularly receive requests to set up new sites etc from customers who are not the OC1 at their organisation. When this happens, ODS advises them to contact the organisations registered OC1. In addition, there is occasionally a requirement to send out mailshots to all the registered OC1s. It is therefore important to ensure you inform ODS as soon as possible if any of your contact details change, particularly your email address. You may be aware that a list of all the registered OC1s is published on the ODS website here: http://nww.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/ods/amendments. Please take a few minutes to check your entry in the ODS contacts spreadsheet to ensure that the details held for you are correct. If any details need to be amended, please log a call with the helpdesk Exeter.helpdesk@nhs.net.
Leaving the OC1 Role and Adding a New OC1 If you leave/relinquish your role as OC1 for your organisation or if you are going to be away for a long period of time (eg maternity leave), please notify the ODS team as soon as possible. You will be asked to complete a form so that a replacement OC1 can be registered. Registering Codes with ODS To register new codes, please complete the spreadsheet Organisation Site Code Request Spreadsheet.xls. This form can be found on the following page of the ODS website: http://nww.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/ods/users/forms. Guidance for completing the form is in red at the top of the form but is also explained more fully below. This form should be used only to set up new codes. For amending or closing existing site codes, please see the guidance further down in this document. There are three different types of site code that you can set up. These are: 1. General site codes. These can be used for any purpose including reporting, Choose and Book, N3, NHS Mail etc. A list of site codes is sent to NHS Choices on a daily basis. If for any reason, a site codes needs to be hidden on the NHS Choices website, then the NHS Choices Web Editor at your organisation can arrange to do this. 2. epact/hospital Prescribing/FP10. These are used by NHS Prescription Services (NHS RxS) to produce prescription pads for prescribing in hospitals. The chief pharmacist will probably be the person that asks you to set these up. Codes for epact are set up in exactly the same way as a general site code except that they have a classification set up against them. This classification identifies the site as epact and is used to exclude epact sites from the daily file that is sent to NHS Choices. It is also used to exclude them from Choose and Book. 3. Pathfinder GP Consortia. This is applicable to Care Trusts and PCTs only. Tick against each code requested, the type of site code you require. You should propose a code for the new site. This should be made up of the Trusts 3 character code and an additional 2 characters to identify the site. The following are illegal characters and cannot be used BIOSUZ. Please note that once a code has been used, it cannot be re-used even if it is now closed. Each location can only be coded once so if a code already exists at the address being requested then it will be rejected. The only exception to this is where the code is for epact or where there are multiple buildings at the same address/postcode. Site names cannot be the first line of the address (eg 74 Any Road). Where possible, it should reflect the building name or the service being run. Site names for epact codes should be the clinic name (eg Dermatology 1), not a clinicians name. This is as recommended by NHS Prescription Services. However, epact codes cannot be set up under
Care Trusts (Txx codes). This is because the NHS RxS database is not able to recognise these codes. For these therefore, you will need to contact the NHS RxS and they will instead, set up their own epact codes under the predecessor organisation, ie either the old PCT or old NHS Trust code. The address must be provided in full including a valid postcode. It should not be either a PO Box or C/O (Care of) address. If the site is a brand new building, the postcode may not yet be valid on Royal Mail. This will, unfortunately, prevent the site from being set up on our database and on the Spine. Where this is the case, if the site is about to open, it may still be possible to set it up with an alternative postcode, which is very close (eg next door or across the road). If the site is not yet open or will not imminently be open but the code is being requested for the purposes of ordering N3 connections, then you will need to contact BTN3 who will provide you with a dummy code. This will allow you to proceed with your order. BTN3 will then contact the ODS team to with details of the dummy code. You will be required to contact ODS when the site opens to request a code. ODS will then advise BTN3 so that they can replace the dummy code with the real code. The contact details for BTN3 are crm.mailbox@bt.com. Site codes can now be set up for prisons as there are an increasing number of NHS Trusts that are running secondary care at prison establishments and these require a code. However, it has been agreed with the prison health team that ODS will not put any reference to HMP/YOI or prison within the site name and address. The site name should ideally reflect the name of the service being run at the prison or the name of the health team. Send your completed spreadsheet to the ODS helpdesk at Exeter.helpdesk@nhs.net. Making Amendments to Existing Site Codes Requests to make an amendment to an existing site, can be made by simply emailing the details of the site(s) to be amended to the ODS helpdesk Exeter.helpdesk@nhs.net. Please do not complete the Organisation Site Code Request Spreadsheet.xls spreadsheet for amendment requests. You need to provide ODS with the site code and details of the amendment. This is usually a change to the name or address of the site. In the past the rule has always been that amendments cannot be made to both the name and address of the site as this is effectively a new site. However, each request to do so will be considered. The decision will depend upon the circumstances and how much the name of the site is changing. For example, if the site name is going to be completely different (eg was Podiatry clinic and is now Dermatology clinic), ODS will not be able to change both the name and the address and are likely to suggest closing the existing site code and opening up a new code. Please note, we are not able to change open dates or re-open closed sites. Closing Codes Requests to close site codes can be made by emailing the details of the site(s) to the ODS helpdesk Exeter.helpdesk@nhs.net. Please do not complete the Organisation Site Code Request Spreadsheet.xls spreadsheet.
Before requesting the closure of a site code, please check with the Choose and Book lead at your organisation that the closure of the code is not going to cause any problems with existing services set up on Choose and Book. Once it has been established that it is ok to close the site, please email your request, providing the site code and the name and details of when it should be closed from. Other types of codes you may be asked to set up or amend by your organisation: NHS Path Labs NHS Path labs are usually linked to NHS Trusts but have their own coding structure. This data is managed by ODS. Branch surgeries child sites of a GP Practice. These would be set up with the parent practice code and an additional 3 numeric s to define the branch. This data is managed by ODS. GP Practices GP and practice data is managed by the NHS Prescription Services (NHS RxS). See below for a fuller description. Helpdesk Service Level Agreements (SLA) Priority Levels, Log Response and Resolution Deadlines When a call is logged with the ODS helpdesk, each call is logged with a priority level and then the ODS support team have set times in which to firstly respond to a call and then to resolve the call. These are set out in the Helpdesk SLA and shown in the table below. A copy of the ODS SLA can be provided on request. Priority Level Response Deadline (from call being logged) Resolution Deadline (from call being logged) Priority 1 2 hours 3 working days Priority 2 4 hours 6 working days Priority 3 2 working days 10 working days The majority of calls are logged as Priority 3. Although the SLA states that priority 3 calls should be responded to in 2 days, ODS will always endeavour to respond much sooner than this. However, with increasing numbers of calls being logged for the ODS team and the increasing number of more complicated queries, it is getting harder to do this. Therefore, ODS would request that if you have any sites that need to be set up quite quickly, please take into account the SLA response and resolution times when sending in your request to the helpdesk. In the event that a customer escalates a log, the HPOV system will automatically generate an e-mail to the ODS Team informing them of this escalation. When a resolution deadline is imminent and the ODS Analyst is waiting for further information from the customer to be able to resolve the call, the ODS Analyst will contact the customer the day before the log breaches the resolution time to make a final follow up request for the further information, they will advise the customer of the deadline and that the call is about to breach. They will inform the customer that if the requested information is not received by the breach time the call will be closed and a new log will need to be raised via the Exeter Helpdesk if assistance from the ODS team is still required.
Priority Levels Explained Calls are logged with a priority as follows: Priority 1 is logged when the caller states that the issue is urgent, for example, is deemed to be of a clinical risk to a service Priority 2 is logged for all RA08 requests (Request to add/remove an RA Admin link) Priority 3 is logged for all other calls unless the caller states that their issue is urgent NHS Prescription Services (NHS RxS) Data and Authorised Signatories NHS RxS manages the following data, which ODS publishes on their behalf: GPs GP Practices and Prescribing Units Nurse prescribers Private Controlled Drug Prescribers Pharmacies Appliance Contractors Each PCT has one or more authorised signatories who are responsible for notifying the NHS RxS of changes to this data, in the same way that ODS have Organisation Codes Contacts (OC1s). NHS RxS provides ODS with a list of these authorised signatories so that ODS can advise customers who the authorised signatory at the PCT is in order to make the required amendments. The contact details for NHS RxS are: prescription.information@ppa.nhs.uk Tel: 0191 203 5112 Acronyms NHS RxS NHS Prescription Services OC1 Organisation Codes Contact ODS Organisation Data Service SLA Service Level Agreement