The WebV Story
Introduction
The introduction of WebV into primary care has caused some legitimate concerns among users, not least because it has come at a time when primary care is under pressure, and it had felt like an additional burden being imposed. It may therefore be useful to go back to the beginning and explain why WebV is necessary, why Labeltrace represents a potential risk, and how WebV concerns are being addressed.
Part 1– Why?
Labeltrace has been a useful product in General Practice but uses a locally based system i.e., reliant on each PC it’s running on, as well as internet links to the lab. In recent years this has been increasingly unreliable and in 2021 some practices experienced day-long outages which meant that they could not send any pathology requests. Although Labeltrace has seemed to be more stable recently, it is only 12 months ago that the service desk was busy sorting out Labeltrace issues on a daily basis. As “old technology” this is expected to continue to be a problem, especially as we have been advised that there are no further Labeltrace developments planned. In addition, Labeltrace has been sold twice in the last 2 years and the current owners are only able to offer a basic maintenance contract to the ICB.
An alternative was sought that was entirely web-based and which would allow access from any registered user from any computer/tablet/phone regardless of where the individual happened to be (home, patient’s home, office, surgery etc).
The current paper/email-based Radiology requesting system produces clinical risk in a number of ways. It is currently possible for requests to come from any staff member with approval from a clinician. Although this is helpful in terms of clinician time, it creates a risk of patients being given doses of radiation that are unnecessary if the requests are not carefully checked by a suitable qualified radiology requestor. Also, with the current system, a staff member at the radiology department has to transcribe email requests onto the radiology software, with the associated risk associated with human errors taking place. An automated, seamless link between primary care request and secondary care activity therefore represents an improve to safety.
Lincolnshire is increasingly moving towards system-wide solutions which work seamlessly across primary and secondary care. This leads to better integration of patient data and improves access to patient information for users in all the Lincs NHS trusts within the county. WebV allows this, resulting in more efficient requesting of radiology and pathology requests as users can immediately see previous requests, regardless of who made them and where the results have been sent.
Part 2 – You Said… We Did!
Thank you to all who gave feedback. It hasn’t been ignored ……..
| You said… | We did… |
| “WebV is developed for use in secondary care and needs input from users in General Practice”. | A User Group has been set up with members including primary care clinicians and admin as well as staff and developers from the LMC, NLAG and ICB. |
| “There is nowhere for us to pass on our concerns and complaints about WebV”. | A feedback form has been created and primary care staff are invited to complete it to ensure that concerns are passed on. It can be found at: https://forms.office.com/e/bxmnWTA3tR
A Management Group has been set up with ICB, LMC and NLAG members to discuss every complaint and development request. The outcomes of these meetings directly affect the next round of developments for WebV. |
| “Too many unnecessary clicks” | We Agree! We are currently removing numerous unnecessary clicks that have been highlighted to us. After this development is released, we would welcome feedback & further suggestions of anywhere within WebV that further click-removal would be helpful. |
| “We need a test patient to practice with” | WebV needs a patient with an NHS number in order to function properly.
Recently the LMC kindly reissued their guidance on how to get a test patient with an NHS number Lincolnshire LMC | Setting up a test patient for the NHS App (lincslmc.co.uk) Practices should now be able to use this to set up a test patient to practice using WebV. |
| “WebV doesn’t work for newly registered patients”. | This is true, but it was also true for Labeltrace.
NLAG have agreed to update WebV patient lists from the spine more frequently to minimise the time between patients registering with a practice and them being visible on WebV. NLAG are also developing a system for clinicians to add new patients at the time of sample collection. |
| “There are some pathology tests missing” | Although this may have been true previously, each time one has been identified, it has been added to WebV. It may also be that the names of tests used on WebV (which are NIHCE-based) are slightly different to the names a specific clinician routinely uses for the same tests, in which case try typing part of a name and WebV should offer options that closely match what has been typed. |
| “If a radiology request is incomplete or is rejected, that information is sent back to the referring clinician. This is not helpful if they are an infrequent locum or they are on annual leave as they cannot pick up the response in a timely way”. | In every case the referring clinician is responsible for following up their requests; however in practice, their work is often covered by another person when they are not around. We will now be sending these emails to the requesting clinician AND the generic practice email address. This will include results and any error messages. |
| “We have to click to choose our surgery for every request” | This is a set-up issue. Your system can be set with your surgery as the default to get around . |
| “WebV doesn’t save the user from the initial log in when moving from one patient to the next”. | See answer above |
| “WebV doesn’t fully integrate with SystmOne and EMIS and they do not record that a radiology/pathology/microbiology test has been requested”. | True. WebV picks up demographic data (Name DOB, NHS Number) from SystmOne and EMIS but that’s all. We have asked SystmOne to prioritise integration with WebV and developers are due to meet (virtually) in the coming weeks.
However ….. WebV itself records each step of a request so an audit trail exists showing every step from request to result and can be reviewed directly with WebV |
| “We need to be able to select numerous tests from multiple drop-down menus without losing them” | This is now possible. Within each discipline (radiology, pathology, or microbiology) previously selected tests are retained. It is only when user switches between disciplines without actioning the previous one that choices will be lost i.e. make sure you complete pathology requests before starting microbiology ones. |
[Next Time: The WebV Story Part 3 – You Said More… We Did More!]
