Pharmacy Manager and National Care Records Service Integration

We are pleased to share news of our first-to-market integration into the National Care Records Service (NCRS) within our Pharmacy Manager Solution and PMR. 

We have been working hard behind the scenes in collaboration with the NHS to fast-track this integration, delivering the best solution to Pharmacy Manager users.

Having previously delivered first to market integrations into other NHS services including the Summary Care Record and Prescription Tracker, this latest innovation reaffirms our commitment to deliver solutions that save time and delight our customers, following our “Listen, Act, Improve” mantra. 

Tracey Robertson, Product and Technology Director comments; 

“This service is another positive step towards the NHS’s vision ‘to deliver and maintain robust and performant national clinical IT systems, enabling the best care for patients.

Delivering seamless integration into central patient records enables our amazing Pharmacy customers to continue to deliver outstanding patient care. We are pleased to be the first PMR provider to make this new functionality available.”

NCRS is now live and the NHS aims to complete the switchover from the SCRa by the end of September 2023. Pharmacy Manager 15.5 released this month will include our direct NCRS integration.

NEW Features include;
One-click to access NCRS in the PMR providing much richer information than the SCR alone.

The patient contextual link within the PMR eliminates the need to re-type information and reduces mis-identification potential, ensuring clinical safety.

What is the NCRS?
National Care Records Service (NCRS) provides a quick, secure way to access national patient information, including medical and safeguarding detail, to improve clinical decision making and healthcare outcomes at the point of care.

Watch Care Records Service video from NHS England Digital.

The new and improved successor to the web-based Summary Care Record application (SCRa), it includes access to more than 57.5 million Summary Care Records with patient additional information. It also enables users to view over 450,000 care plan records via the National Record Locator.
 
NCRS gives you access to an ever-increasing number of NHS digital services including the SCR, Personal Demographics Service (PDS), Reasonable Adjustment(s), Child Protection - Information Sharing service (CP-IS) and National Care Record Locator service.

It offers multiple access options to be be used in clinical, office or mobile environments. It does not require a smartcard and an HSCN connection but can still be accessed in this way. Visit digital.nhs.uk/national-care-records-service for more.

One-click access at the point of care
One-click access in the PMR to the NCRS will aid clinical decision making and therefore patient care. From the locally held patient record you will have an “in context” option to view the associated National Care Record for the patient, aiding in clinical decision making, and reducing the need for re-locating the patient in a system outside the PMR.

Simeon Green, Product Manager responsible for the integration comments;

"The success of our 1-click SCR integration, particularly during the height of Covid, where critical information was used to identify patients with additional care needs, really demonstrated how essential quick access to patient data is to pharmacy. We are delighted to be able to deliver this new integration into the National Care Records Service. These time saving enhancements are critical to our customers and we are excited to continue in our mission to help pharmacy thrive".