Cegedim Healthcare Solutions have been made aware of an issue whereby changes made to information for a patient’s repeat prescription items are not always triggering an extract of data from Vision for inclusion in the patient’s Emergency Care Summary (ECS). The ECS provides healthcare staff across NHS Scotland working in emergency and out-of-hours settings with access to a summary of up-to-date information about a patient’s health, including allergies and GP prescribed medication.
The omission of changes to repeat medication information from the ECS extract (including issue dates, prescription dates and deactivations) will result in a patient’s ECS record not including / displaying all up-to-date information for repeat prescription items prescribed for the patient. This presents a potential risk of inappropriate clinical decision making where a viewer of a patient’s ECS does not have access to all up-to-date information for the patient relating to any repeat medications they are currently on, or are no longer on, at the point of direct care. This may have implications for the patient’s treatment and patient care may be compromised as a result.
The issue does not always occur as ECS data extracted from Vision for some patients will include changes made to information for a patient’s repeat prescription items where an ECS data extract has been triggered as a result of other factors.
As mitigation, we are currently in the process of investigating this issue further with a view to establishing a solution to ensure that changes made to information for a patient’s repeat prescription items will always trigger and be included in a data extract from Vision for inclusion in the patient’s ECS. In the meantime, we would ask that ECS users / viewers are mindful of the potential for risk in this area when viewing a patient's current active repeat medications displayed in their ECS. Users are reminded that the ECS information is not intended to be the only source of information used when ascertaining a patient’s current medication.
