27th October 2016 13:00 – 14:30
Community Questions & Answers
Below are a list of questions and answers from the Code4Health Open ePMA Community Webinar, demonstrating OPENeP. If you have any further questions, please contact or take a look at
1)Can OPENeP Product Manage Forms such as 62 and CT11/12
a)OPENeP has the ability that allows the user to indicate that the selection of a treatment that is outside the agreed consent guidelines is justified under section 62.
The OPENePdoes NOT create or populate the official forms at this point. We are hoping to work with the CQC to identify a mechanism to support this, but at present the paper forms remain the standard.
We are unclear of the requirements for Forms CT 11/12 but would be happy to respond if we could obtain more detail.
2)Can OPENeP prescribe a depot, based on frequency and date given / next due as an inpatient, transferring discharge?
a)Yes. The ‘last date given’ and ‘next data due’ should be clear from within the in-patient chart for medicines whose dose interval spans more than the visible time period.
3)Can patient photos be uploaded?
a)OPENeP supports the use of photos to help identify both staff and patients.
4)Can calendar month depot frequencies calculated by calendar month (rather than monthly)?
a)OPENeP supports the use of 28 or 30 day cycles. Work is ongoing to support the concept of a dose interval defined as ‘the last Wednesday each month’ or similar.
5)Does OPENeP cover outpatient functionality?
a)OPENeP does support out-patient functionality. The is being enhanced to support the full range of prescription outputs required for NHS use, including FP10SS; FP10MDA; private prescriptions (both CD and non-CD); etc.
6)What is the roadmap for development?
a)LINK TO ROADMAP (immediate roadmap is complete upgrade of OP functionality and add electronic CD register functionality)
7)Can OPENeP be linked to other systems such as another patient record or dispensing system in pharmacy?
a)OPENeP is designed to integrate with existing Patient Administration Systems (PAS). This is achieved using an integration services partner (such as CGI). Integration with other elements (such as laboratory systems) can be facilitated as part of the deployment. Integration with dm+d compliant pharmacy systems is possible and work is underway within NHS England / NHS Digital to examine a standard for this.
8)Does OPENeP support drug administration by PGD’s?
a)OPENeP does support the use of PGDs, allowing development of the PGD as a type of ‘template’ that is only available to appropriate users (and these users would not normally have access to wider prescribing functionality unless they were additionally registered prescribers).
9)What reporting is available in OPENeP to audit medication use?
a)There is a range of ‘standard reports’ available and details of these can be obtained directly from the supplier or their integration partner.
10) Is it possible for users to set up their own reporting in OPENeP such as a search for all patients being prescribed certain medication?
a)‘bespoke’ reports can be run from your hospital data warehouse using standard reporting tools – further details of these can be obtained directly from the supplier or their integration partner.
11) How can I demonstrate OPENeP to others or find out more about procuring OPENeP?
a)Further details about OPENeP can be found at the following address
12)Can OPENeP manage variable dosing e.g. quetiapine, 150mg OM, 300mg ON and if so how?
a)OPENeP supports a comprehensive range of variable and ‘protocol’ based dosing, including the example identified and other ‘standard’ step up or step down regimes as well as complex variable doses such as sliding scale insulin regimes.
13)Can OPENeP manage additional instructions such as “Swallow Whole”?
a)Instructions to support appropriate administration (including swallow whole) can be added as comments in the prescribing field by the prescriber or pharmacist to ensure they are always visible to nurse.
14)Can OPENeP manage variable dose prescribing for Clozapine initiation?
a)Yes – see question 12. Interaction with the Clozapine Monitoring Service is not possible as the CMS will not share data for confidentiality reasons.
15)Does OPENeP allow users to enter and manage allergies?
a)OPENeP does support the recording of allergies but it is vital that such information is entered only once within a clinical record and shared across all applications. Such information is normally already available in other systems and should be consumed from their rather than separately entered in the ePMA system – duplicated (or even different) entries in different systems causes confusion and may lead to error.
16)Does OPENeP allow a nurse to document site for IM’s e.g. given right gluteal?
a)The nurse can indicate in a comments field where the injection was given but there is some consideration being given to a way of facilitating this being more readily visible for future administrations.
17)Does OPENeP enable users to prescribe by indication for regular medications?
a)It is possible (and indeed encouraged) to create ‘indication based’ templates and to search for these if there are too many templates to easily find what you want – but searching by ATC (or BNF) class is unlikely to provide a useable result.
18)Does OPENeP manage outpatient prescribing e.g. via FP10’s and also administration of depots in a community setting?
a)See answer 5 for FP 10. Recording administration of depots in a community setting is possible – if the community is ‘fully connected’ or there is a clear and documented process to support ‘disconnected working’ – some local configuration is required to support this.
19)Does OPENeP receive updates from the BNF automatically?
a)The dm+d drug dictionary within OPENeP is updated by a standard mechanism every month. I am not aware of any BNF data that is available in this manner.
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