We aim to make all communications from NHS Yorkshire and the Humber as easy to understand as possible, however there may be times when you come across words, phrases or acronyms with which you may not be familiar. Please use our glossary to help you.
We always welcome ideas for any words or terms you think we should add - please contact the communications team on communications@yorksandhumber.nhs.uk with your comments.
Click on the letters below to quickly find what you are looking for, or browse the whole list by scrolling down the page.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
A&E - Accident and Emergency
Accident and Emergency departments assess and treat people with serious injuries and those in need of emergency treatment. They are sometimes referred to as ‘casualty’ departments.
ABS On-line (Address Book Synchronisation)
A national address book for the NHS provided on NHSnet by Syntegra.
Acceptance Test
A test of an IT system that ensures that it meets the requirements specified of:
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Functionality
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Inter-operation
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Performance
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Scalability
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Resilience (e.g. sensitivity to external failures)
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User interaction
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Data migration (both the migration itself and the operation of the solution with migrated data).
See also User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
Access
The right or opportunity to read or write data or programs.
Access Restrictions
A set of rules for limiting access.
Accreditation
A process to evaluate computer systems, the way they interface with each other and the NCR National Spine and the standards they use to support NCR National Spine which, when passed, will become “Accredited Systems”.
Accredited System
A system which has passed accreditation.
Acute Care
Hospital-based health services.
Acute Trust
A legal entity/organisation formed to provide health services in a secondary care setting, usually a hospital.
Additional Services
Services identified in the contract for pricing purposes but contained insufficient detail to qualify as full specifications for services.
ABS - Address Book Synchronisation
Addressing Grid
A rule set determining the destination(s) for each Commissioned Data Set (CDS) depending mainly on patient demographics and treatment area. Full details of the CDS Addressing Grid are contained within the latest appropriate Data Set Change Notice, which currently is DSCN 46/2002.
APC - Admitted Patient Care
Specialised alcohol and other drug treatment services for admitted patients, including stand-alone specialised units and specialised wards in general acute hospitals.
Administrative Events
Administrative events occur where there is a change to patient information held on the system which is of a purely administrative nature.
Advice and Guidance
A combined term in Electronic Booking Service (EBS) meaning a question from a referring clinician to an expert regarding aspects of a service.
Alert
A warning call or alarm. (An “alert” addresses conditions where urgent action may be needed by a care professional; such as the prescription, by different people, of incompatible medications, or the return of significantly abnormal values in a test result.
AHP - Allied Health Professional
A healthcare professional who is not a medical doctor and who works as part of a clinical team in a hospital, primary care or community care setting, such as a laboratory technician.
Ambulance Trust
A legal entity responsible for providing ambulance services within a defined geographic area.
Anonymisation
The process of transforming personal data into anonymised data.
API - Application Programming Interface
An API is an Interface which is used for accessing an application or a service from a programme. An API makes it possible to use programs from within programmes; therefore it is the foundation for modular systems with clearly defined Interfaces between separate components.
Appointment
The commitment of a patient to an appointment slot for a specific service provider at a specific place, date and time.
Appointment Prescription
A term no longer used, except in the context of the EBS contract. See appointment request (note this is a change to the defined term in the EBS schedule 1.1).
Appointment Request (was Referral Request)
An entitlement to book into a list of clinically appropriate services defined by the referring clinician when a patient is not able to commit to a specific appointment at the time of referral. This allows the patient to choose an appointment at a later time on-line or by contacting the BMS using their Unique Booking Reference Number (UBRN).
Appointment Slot
A time period at a specific location, date, time and duration, which is available for a patient to see the provider of the service. When a slot is booked for a specified patient it is called an appointment. There may be multiple slots within the same service at the same time but there is no relationship between them. The service provider system identifies each slot with a unique identifier.
ASW - Approved Social Worker
A person with specialist mental health training who is approved by the Social Services Department to act under the Mental Health Act 1983.
Audit Trail
A record showing the occurrence of specified events relevant to the security of a computer system.
Authenticated
The confirmation following user authentification that the end user is actually the person he/she purports to be.
User Authentification
The process of ensuring an end user is actually the person he/she purports to be.
Authorised Person
The patient or appropriate carer; the consultant, service provider, GP or other professional or referring clinician; or their support staff (e.g. medical secretary, practice staff etc) who is authorised to carry out a particular booking transaction.
Authorised Users
Users authorised by the Authority and correctly authenticated to access agreed (between the user and the authority) elements of the Service. For the avoidance of doubt, an authorised user shall be correctly authenticated to access the Services in accordance with the rights granted to such user.
Authority
The Department of Health.
AtP - Authority to Proceed
Approval given to business cases. AtP 1 relates to outline and AtP 2 relates to final.
ACP - Automatic Call Distribution
AoW - Area of Work
The specialist area in which an NCRS user works. Can be added to a URP to grant additional access rights.
B
Baseline
A collection of documents that have been “frozen” at a particular point in time. Used to track changes to approved sets over time.
Basic Model
The basic functionality provided by the NASP.
BAFO - Best And Final Offer
Beta Version
Software that has been tested and is believed to be working but is released to a user community to test in a live environment (in case the previous testing did not explore all the scenarios encountered in live use). Beta versions of software are not considered to be ‘finished code’ and MAY contain significant errors. This distinguishes this phase from other phases of testing, where the supplier has delivered what it considers to be ‘finished code’.
BMS Agent
A generic term in Electronic Booking which includes BMS Clinicians – call centre clinical staff and BMS Admin – Call Centre non clinical staff.
BMS - Booking Management Service
The booking and management service element of Choose and Book (see Choose & Book pages on SHA web site). A contact centre or similar that any relevant party can contact to create, change, cancel or query an electronic booking or electronic referral.
Booker (see Referring Clinician)
The preferred term is now Referring Clinician.
(note this is a change to the defined term in the EBS Schedule 1.1 A term no longer used, except in the context of the EBS Contract).
Booking
The process of agreeing an appointment for a future interaction between a service provider often a specific healthcare professional or facility such as a clinic – and a referring clinician. The booking process is concerned with agreeing the administrative arrangements for the interaction, not the transfer of clinical/medical information from one person to another to support treatment. The patient has a choice of the date, time and, by 2005, the place where their appointment/admission will take place.
Booking Compliant
Conforming to criteria pre-determined by the authority and the contractor. The term is used in connection with GPS and PAS.
Booking Guidance
A set of administrative rules and/or procedures that enable a booking or referral for a patient to be made to the right place with the appropriate priority.
BIM - Booking Implementation Manager
The core objective for the Choose and Book BIM role is to help the Regional Implementation Director or their designate, to ensure the Cluster Implementation of Choose and Book is a success.
Responsibilities can range from driving the trajectory planning and identification of ‘next adopters’ within the Cluster, organising Cluster resources to provide workshops so trusts are empowered, ensuring consistency of and access to information, and implementation assurance.
Booking Process
The process of agreeing an appointment for a future interaction between a service provider, often a specific healthcare professional or facility such as a clinic and a patient. The booking process is concerned with agreeing the administrative arrangements for the interaction and transfer of clinical/medical information from one person to another to support treatment. The patient has a choice of the date, time and, by 2005, the place where their appointment/admission will take place.
(Note this is synonymous with the defined term Booking in EBS Schedule 1.1)
BMJ - British Medical Journal
BNF - British National Formulary
Reference publication relating to the safe use of medicines.
BAP - Broadband Aggregation Programme
The DTI initiative to aggregate public sector broadband demand through regional procurement.
Broadband for Britain Programme
To introduce broadband into every Public Sector site in the UK, acknowledging public services would drive the initiative forward in 2003, the N3 contract puts the NHS at the forefront of the initiative.
Bulk Replacement
The protocol which allows addition, deletion and replacement of data on the data base for all CDS records of a particular type generated by a provider in a particular period.
BC - Business Case
Documented analysis of benefit of proceeding with a programme/ investment with typically three different stages in the OGC process: strategic, outline and final.
Business Process
A defined series of steps which occur within a users business or operational setting.
Business Rule
A statement that defines or constrains some aspect of the business. It is intended to assert business structure and to control or influence the behaviour of the business. These business rules shall be defined in writing by the authority.
C
CAB
Choose and Book (also see Choose & Book pages on SHA web site).
Caldicott Guidelines
Guidelines issued by the Department of Health relating to the confidentiality of patient information. See www.doh-gov.uk/ipu/confiden/index.html for more information.
CMS - Card Management System
Care Communities
Geographic grouping of NHS Trusts within each SHA nominally based on the original health authority boundaries.
CPA - Care Programme Approach or Care Programme Approach for Mental
Health systematic assessment of the health and social care needs of the service user with particular regard as to whether the service user has a severe and enduring (i.e., chronic) mental illness.
CRDB - Care Records Development Board
The board brings together patients and service users, the public, and social and healthcare professionals. It works with the National Programme to identify the values, principles and processes of care and ensure that these are taken into account in the implementation of systems. The board is chaired by Harry Cayton.
Care Relationship
Care relationship means the formal interaction between a patient and a health or social care professional, in order that health and/or social care services may be provided to them.
Care Trust
A legal entity to be formed to provide healthand social care services.
Central Returns
A collection of data that is required centrally. It is subject to rigorous review by Review of Central Requirements (ROCR), and as part of a joint working process with Information Standard Board (ISB) should be in line with national data and information standards.
CA - Certificate Authority
A CA is an entity/system that issues (X.509 Identity) certificates.
CRL - Certificate Revocation List
A list of certificates that have been revoked by the CA (Certificate Authority) that issued them.
Change Control
A system during software development that provides revision control and backup safety for work products during their formative development.
CCN - Change Control Note
A three part form to recording the initiation, impact and approval of a change to a contract or specification.
CMB - Change Management Board
Similar to the NCCB but with far greater powers to approve or reject. Used by the NCCB to approve changes that impact contracts, delivery dates or budgets.
Channel
An access route into Electronic Booking Service (EBS) e.g. via the internet or digital TV.
CEO - Chief Executive Officer
Children’s Trust
A legal entity to be formed to provide health and social care services to children.
Choice
A DH Initiative to provide choice for patients leading to Choice at the point of referral by December 2005 .The NPfIT Electronic Booking component will help to deliver elements of the Choice programme.
CSOP - Classification of Surgical Operations and Procedures
Classification of Surgical Operations and Procedures - the classification devised for translating or classifying all operations and surgical procedures that may be carried out on a patient during an episode of health care.
Clinical Assessment Service
Where Clinical Assessment Services are included in the Directory of Services a referring clinician will be able to refer a patient to a CAS. Following assessment, the CAS will be able to refer the patient on to the appropriate service.
CAS - Clinical Assessment System
Software system used by NHS Direct operators.
Clinical Audit
The systematic and critical analysis of the quality of clinical care. This includes the procedures used for diagnosis and treatment, the associated use of resources, and the effect of care on the outcome and quality of life for the patient.
Clinical Auditor
A person who is authorised to carry out clinical audits.
CNST - Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts
A scheme established by the Department of Health as a means for the NHS Trusts to fund the costs of clinical negligence litigation.
See www.doh-gov.uk/consent/hsc2001023.pdf
Clinical Pathway
A clinical pathway determines locally agreed multidisciplinary practice based on guidelines and evidence (where available) for a specific patient/client group.
Clinician
A health service professional dealing with clinical rather than administrative issues. (a defined term in EBS Schedule 1.1)
Clinician Reference Group
This is a ‘workgroup’ within the London Programme to provide specialist clinician involvement at appropriate times throughout the programme to the various London programmes/projects.
CDA - Clinical Document Architecture
An XML vocabulary, which is a type of language that can be used to define a message structure which enables computers to send clinical messages between each other, such as discharge summaries and progress notes.
CDM - Chronic Disease Management
CDS - Commissioning Data Sets
Nationally defined sets of patient level activity data which are sent from hospital care providers to commissioners via the NHS Wide Clearing Service.
CG - Caldicott Guardian
A person, usually a senior clinician, who has been appointed by an NHS organisation to take certain responsibilities regarding the organisation’s use and protection of personal data relating to patients. Recently extended to include social care organisations.
CH - Craven and Harrogate
A local health community area within North and East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire.
CHAI - Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection
Organisation established to accelerate and promote improvement inpatient care and healthcare value for money across England and Wales. It replaced CHI on 1 April 2004. www.chai.org.uk
CHI - Commission for Health Improvement
The independent inspection body for the NHS. Was replaced by CHAI on 1 April 2004. www.chai.nhs.uk
CIO - Chief Information Officer
A person who develops and maintains the necessary information, data and technology infrastructure to support the modernisation agenda of the NHS.
Cluster
The area for which a Local Service Provider is appointed to provide National Programme for IT services. For the North East Cluster, this is Accenture.
CMHT - Community Mental Health Team
Psychiatrists, community psychiatric nurses and others who provide mental health services within a defined community.
Commissioners
Authorised Primary Care Trust staff in charge of commissioning contracts with service providers of healthcare services, typically from an acute trust.
Commissioning Rules
Representation of the contracts between a primary care trust and secondary care trusts for the provision of services.
CCM - Common Change Manager
Primary point of contact within an area including programme, project, cluster or function responsible for ensuring an impact assessment is conducted for common changes i.e. a change that affects more than one contract or area. Feeds into and attends the NCCB.
Community Care
Locally-based health or Social Care services provided to patients in and around their home.
CPACS - Community Picture Archiving and Communications System
A system used for the storage and processing of images in the community.
CPA - Care Programme Approach
Systematic assessment of the health and social care needs of a service user with particular regard as to whether the service user has a severe and enduring (i.e. chronic) mental illness.
CPACS - Community Picture Archiving and Communications System
A system used for the storage and processing of images in the community.
CCA – Company Chemists Association
Competent Child
DoH Rules say children under 16 may still be able to give consent for themselves (they are competent), provided they are mature enough to understand fully what is involved.
CMDB - Configuration Management Database
A database storing information about all assets in the organisation including documents, assets, changes and problems. May consist of a number of different applications.
CFH – Connecting for Health
Full title is NHS Connecting for Health. The Agency within the Department of Health and established on 1st April 2005 as the single national IT provider for the NHS. The agency combines the National Programme with the IT related functions of the NHS Information Authority.
CHD - Coronary Heart Disease
Connector
Specialised software used to synchronise the contents of a directory with those of other data sources.
Contact
A secure national email and directory service. It was developed specifically to meet NHS and BMA requirements for clinical email between NHS organisations.
CPD - Continuing Professional Development
The updating and extension of knowledge, skills and competence of healthcare staff in order to maintain competent professional practice.
Coordination
‘Coordination’ provides assistance in the flow of information generating appropriate notifications whenever a given type of event is received by the Spine (e.g. notifying a doctor when a test result is available for collection).
Coordination Rule
Has the meaning set out in Schedule 1.1 Section 370.6 NCR National Spine NASP Contract being rules which consist of: (i) a trigger event, to be agreed with the Authority, and (ii) a list of actions to be performed when the trigger event occurs, to be agreed with the authority.
CRDB - Care Record Development Board
The CRDB brings together patients and service users, the public, and social and healthcare professionals. It works with the National Programme to enable sharing of information, scheduling and processes across traditional boundaries. The board is chaired by Harry Cayton.
CRG - Clinicial Reference Group
Clinical Reference Group contribute to the work being done to design, test and build NPfIT solutions, enabling clinicians to deliver better patient care.
CRS - Care Records Service
A mixture of local and national IT services designed to provide a cradle-to-grave care record for each patient.
D
DAS - Data Access Service
This definition includes all references to National Data Set (NDS) Access Services and comprises Commissioner NDS Access Services, Provider NDS Access Services and all on-line data access enquiry services.
DBT - Design Build and Test
DICOM - Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine
The industry standard for transferral of radiologic images and other medical information between computers. www.rsna.org
DiTV - Interactive Digital Television
DL - Dependencies Log
Shows actions that other parties have to complete before a Local Service Provider and/or the NHS can continue.
DGH - District General Hospital
DH or DoH - Department of Health
The department that supports the government to improve the health and well being of the population. www.dh.gov.uk
DNA - Did Not Attend
Where a patient fails to turn up for an appointment or admission.
DQR - Data Quality Report
This gives the overall percentages of CDS with missing and invalid data and details of the first 25 records with errors for each data interchange.
DS - Data Spine
The database of patient information to be developed and maintained, and in connection with which certain applications are to be developed or delivered, by the contractor.
DSCN - Data Set Change Notice
A national directive issued from the NHS Information Authority, notifying NHS organisations of mandatory and other changes to data collection requirements.
DTC - Diagnostic and Treatment Centre
Also known as Treatment Centres. They provide elective (planned) surgery for a range of conditions, mainly for day surgery or short-term hospital stay patients, making the most efficient use of resources.
E
eBooking - Electronic Booking
A service to allow a common means of booking appointments for NHS services through multiple electronic communication channels. Part of Choose and Book (also see Choose & Book pages on SHA web site).
EDIFACT - Electronic Date Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport
A standard for electronic exchange of structured messages, currently used for central returns and pathology messages.
EDQRS - Electronic Data Quality Reporting Service
The NHS-Wide Clearing Service which is a web based reporting service.
EFG - Efficiency and Financial Gain
eGIF - Electronic Government Interoperability Framework
A published set of technical standards to enable interaction between public sector systems. Compliance with this is a mandatory requirement in new systems procurements. www.nhsia.nhs.uk/egif
ERDIP - Electronic Record Development and Implementation Programme
A programme established to provide the opportunity for in-service development and demonstration of best practice and progress towards shared patient records.
ETP - Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions
A computer based messaging service supporting the issue of acute and repeat prescriptions / dispensing.
EWS - Enterprise Wide Scheduling
A system for the scheduling of appointments and tasks across all hospitals departments and functional areas.
F
Foundation Trust
NHS Foundation Trusts are a new type of NHS Hospital tailored to the needs of local populations and run by local managers, staff and members of the public.
G
GMC - General Medical Council
The regulator of the medical profession. Its purpose is to protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the community by ensuring proper standards in the practice of medicine. www.gmc-uk.org
GMS - General Medical Services
This scheme includes medical card services provided by doctors and pharmacists, prescribed drugs and medicines services provided by community pharmacists and dental services provided to medical card holders.
H
HAS - Health Advisory Service
HAZ - Health Action Zone
Health Action Zones are partnerships between the NHS, local authorities, community groups and the voluntary and business sectors. They are often set up in areas with poor health records so that health is more effectively addressed.
HES - Hospital Episode Statistics
Centrally provided information, via the NHS Wide Clearance Service which is recorded and used by the Department of Health and the NHS Information Authority to produce statistical information about clinical activity within the NHS.
HIS - Health Informatics Service
HL7 - Health Level 7
An accredited clinical messaging standard in use within the NHS. www.hl7.org
HSCIC - Health and Social Care Centre
A centre that works to co-ordinate and streamline the collection and sharing of data about health and adult social care. www.ic.nhs.uk
I
ICD or ICD10 - International Classfication of Diseases
An internationally accepted World Health Organisation classification that assigns codes to diagnosis and procedures (version 10).
ICP - Integrated Care Pathway
A process within health and social care that collects variations between planned and actual care.
ICRS - Integrated Care Records Service
The former name for the NHS Care Record Service.
ICU - Intensive Care Unit
Intensive Care Units, also known as Critical Care Units, are located in hospitals and provide treatment and monitoring for people who are in a critically ill or unstable condition.
IFH - Information for Health
A report published in 1998 defining the role IT has to play in the NHS
ILA - Individual Learning Account
The ILA scheme is to help NHS staff who do not have a work-related professional qualification develop their skills and potential and help to raise standards in the fundamentals of patient care
IM&T - Information Management and Technology
Integration Testing
The integration test phase is where the supplier shows that their solution can access and integrate with national NPfIT applications such as choose and book.
ISB - Information Standards Board
A board set up to approve and review NHS information standards
ISTC - Independent Sector Treatment Centre
IWL - Improving Working Lives
A national standard, which all NHS employers must meet. It provides important targets for a range of staff policies and practices that aim to improve the working lives of all staff.
J
K
L
LAN - Local Area Network
A group of networked computers, usually located within a specific geographic area such as a building or factory.
LDP - Local Delivery Plan
LGA- Local Government Association
The LGA represents the local authorities of England and Wales and exists to promote better local government. www.lga.gov.uk
LHC - Local Health Community
A general term that relates to the collection of GP’s and trusts who have been working together (not necessarily in the same SHA). In North and East Yorkshire & Northern Lincolnshire there are six Local Health Communities.
LSP - Local Service Provider
A provider of local applications and services to support NPfIT which has been appointed for the Cluster. The LSP for the North East Cluster is Accenture. See www.accenture.co.uk
M
Map of Medicine (MoM)
MoM is a decision support tool based on care pathways which can be accessed by clinicians to help support patient care.
ML - Milestone Logs
Shows when certain tasks are to be accomplished.
Model Community
The Model Community is designed to simulate the real world of the NHS. It provides a safe test environment to confirm that each new release of an IT solution provided by Local Service Providers (LSPs) supports the needs of health professionals who will actually use the software.
MHS - My Health Space
A personalised point of entry to a patient portal through which a patient may access their own health information. www.healthspace.nhs.uk
N
N3 - New National Network
The infrastructure that will deliver secure broadband connectivity across the NHS. The contract for N3 has been awarded to BT. www.bt.co.uk
NA - National Application
An application to be developed or delivered by the National Application Service Provider (NASP).
NAO - National Audit Office
The body that scrutinises public spending on behalf of Parliament. It is totally independent of Government and audits the accounts of all government departments and agencies as well as a wide range of other public bodies. www.nao.org.uk
NASP - National Application Service Provider
The NASP will provide software and support for the summary patient record, together with infrastructure services that will deliver a consistent set of patient confidentiality and security principles to be implemented across all systems.
National Fraud Initiative (NFI)
A national data matching exercise carried out by the Audit Commission (See reports and publications)
NatPaCT - National Primary and Care Trust Development Programme
A Programme established following publication of Shifting the Balance of Power to provide organisational development support to PCTs. www.natpact.nhs.uk
NCAB - National Clinical Advisory Board
A group of senior clinicians representing healthcare professionals in the National Programme. Replaced by the Care Record Development Board in Summer 2004.
NCRS.
NCRS - NHS Care Records Service
A portfolio of tools and services for creating, accessing, managing and moving patient records and related data that describes and prompts the events in a patient's journey through the NHS.
NDS - National Data Set
This is the set of all national defined secondary care related data types flowing through the NWCS including the Commissioning Data Sets.
NeLH - National Electronic Library for Health
Programme working with NHS libraries to develop a digital library for NHS staff, patients and the public. www.nelh.nhs.uk
NHAIS - National Health Applications & Infrastructure Services
The NHAIS Exeter System is a software suite used by all Health Authorities in England and Wales for the administration of cancer screening call/recall programmes and to deal with patient registration and contractor payments. www.nhsia.nhs.uk/nhais
NHS - National Health Service
The National Health Service was set up in 1948 to provide healthcare for all citizens, based on need, not the ability to pay. It is made up of a wide range of health professionals, support workers and organisations. www.nhs.uk
NHS CfH - NHS Connecting for Health
The new Department of Health Agency which is delivering the National Programme for IT.
NHSCR - National Central Register
A central register of patients in the NHS.
NHS Direct or NHS Direct Online
A nurse-led telephone advice and information service, also available on the internet. www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
NHS Directory Services
Service to support inter-personal and inter-organisational communication between NHS staff, whether by e-mail, fax, telephone or postal services.
NHS ESR - NHS Electronic Staff Record
National integrated HR and payroll system for the NHS.
NHS European Office
The NHS European Office is responsible for monitoring EU affairs, keeping the NHS informed of these developments and influencing them in the interest of the NHS. They are funded by the SHAs and part of the NHS Confederation.
NHSIA - NHS Information Authority
A Special Health Authority, which ceased to operate on many of its key functions in April 2005. Much of the work undertaken by the NHSIA will be continued by the National Programme for IT and the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
NHSnet
The NHS private electronic Information Provider network provided by BT and Cable and Wireless.
NHS Number
A number used to identify a person uniquely within the NHS in England and Wales.
NHS Plan
The document, ‘The NHS Plan: A Plan for Investment. A Plan for Reform’, published in 2000, which is available at www.neynlha.nhs.uk
NHS Trust or Trust
A generic term for a legal entity/organisation providing health and Social Care services within the NHS.
NICE - National Institute for Clinical Excellence
A Special Health Authority for England and Wales on 1 April 1999. It is part of the NHS and its role is to provide patients, health professionals and the public with authoritative, robust and reliable guidance on current best practice. www.nice.org.uk
NISP - National Infrastructure Service Provider
The NISP will procure, integrate and and manage networking services (N3) on behalf of the NHS. The NISP is BT. www.bt.co.uk
NN4B - NHS Numbers for Babies
A service which allocates a NHS Number to new-born babies.
NPfIT - National Programme for Information Technology
A programme which focuses on the key IT developments that will make a significant difference to improving the patient experience and the delivery of care and services.
NSF - National Service Framework
National Service Frameworks provide a systematic approach on which to tackle the agenda of improving standards and quality across health care sectors.
NSTS - NHS Strategic Tracing Service
A service provided to the NHS organisations to trace and access patient details, and to obtain their NHS number and a range of up-to-date administrative information.
NWCS - NHS-Wide Clearing Service
A mechanism through which NHS data is channelled. Activity data is sent by Trusts through the NWCS to the commissioners and the Authority. www.nhsia.nhs.uk/nwcs
O
OAT - Out of Area Treatment
From 1 April 1999 patients have been treated under service agreements. Emergencies and other situations which preclude the use of specific pre-arranged service agreements are covered by arrangements termed Out of Area Treatments (OATs).
OBC - Outline Business Case
A document which includes a full description of the requirement focusing on what, more than how. Costs, benefits and risks are checked so the preferred option and procurement strategy can be assessed on a value for money basis.
OBS - Output Based Specification
A document which provides a description of the requirement in output or outcome terms, concentrating on what is required rather than how it is to be delivered.
OGC - Office of Government Commerce
The OGC works with government to improve procurement and project/programme management. They also work with suppliers to make the government marketplace more efficient and attractive to business. www.ogc.gov.uk
ONS - Office of National Statistics
Launched in June 2000, the ONS provides an up-to-date, comprehensive and meaningful description of the UK's economy and society. www.statistics.gov.uk
P
PACS - Picture Archiving and Communications System
A system used for the storage and processing of images in an imaging department, enabling radiologists and imaging specialists to perform diagnostic tasks.
PALS - Patient Advice and Liaison Service
A service provided to help patients, carers and relatives raise concerns or make comments on any aspect of local health services.
PAS - Patient Administration System
A computerised administrative system that helps with planning, tracking and recording patients' attendance of clinics and appointments.
PASA - NHS Supplies Authority
The NHS purchasing agency responsible for over £2bn of goods and services in terms of commissioning, performance management and strategic planning.
PC - Planned Care
PCT - Primary Care Trust
The organisations responsible for the planning and securing of health services and improving the health of the local population.
PDS - Personal Demographics Service
PFI - Private Finance Initiative
System of procurement where private sector organisations are contracted to provide services to the public sector.
PID - Project Initiation Document
The document that signals the beginning of project.
PMIP - Pathology Messaging Implementation Programme
The national programme for pathology messaging between pathology laboratory systems and GP systems.
PPA - Prescription Pricing Authority
The PPA deals with examination, checking, investigation and pricing of prescriptions for drugs, medicines and listed appliances. They are also involved with the calculation of reimbursements, providing information on analysing costs and prescribing trends of GPs, together with analysis of the number and cost of prescriptions. www.ppa.org.uk
Primary Care
Services provided by family doctors, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists and ophthalmic medical practitioners, together with district nurses and health visitors.
PSIS - Personal Spine Information Services
Service giving clinicians across England access to an integrated, patient record from cradle to grave.
Q
QA - Quality Assurance
R
RCN - Royal College of Nursing
The RCN represents nurses and nursing, promotes excellence in practice and shapes health policies. www.rcn.org.uk
Read Codes
A diagnostic coding system designed for use in Primary Care.
Regression Testing
The Regression Test Phase is undertaken when a new module or feature is added to a system. The system is then regression tested to ensure that new modules or features work and that the system continues to function well with these new modules or features.
RID - Regional Implementation Director
The RID's role is to implement the National Programme in each of the cluster areas. They work closely with the SHAs and CIOs in their cluster to ensure that deliverables and benefits from the Programme and Local Development Plans are achieved.
RIS - Radiology Information System
A computer system in the radiology department containing patient details and records.
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SAP - Single Assessment Process
Standard designed to ensure that older people receive appropriate, effective and timely responses to their health and social care needs, and that professional resources are used effectively
SE - Sealed Envelope
Personal data that is subject to special access restrictions made by, or stimulated by the patient or the clinician. The process of this is to 'seal off data'.
SHA - Strategic Health Authority
Responsible for developing strategies for local health services and ensuring high-quality performance. They manage the NHS locally and are a key link between the Department of Health and the NHS. See www.neynlha.nhs.uk
SHA - Special Health Authority
A Special Health Authority is a body that is usually established for the purposes of providing a service to the rest of the NHS. It is part of the NHS and is subject to many of the same requirements as other health authorities. The functions and obligations of an SHA are set out in legislation; SHAs are therefore accountable to Ministers and Parliament.
SME - Small to Medium Enterprise
SNOMED CT - Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms
A single unified terminology to underpin the development of the integrated patient record. It provides an essential building block for a common computerised language for use across the world. www.nhsia.nhs.uk/snomed
Spine
The Spine is a national, central database where summary patient records are stored. When fully implemented, local records will automatically upload important information to the summary patient record on the Spine.
SUS - Secondary Uses Service
As SUS develops it will become a central repository for secondary use data. It will support audit and performance review, bringing together clinical and administrative data into a single service.
SSeBG - Service Selection Booking Guidance
A set of agreed rules and / or procedures across primary and secondary care helping referring clinicians to identify services appropriate to their patient's need and set the right appointment based on that need
SSpBG - Service Specific Booking Guidance
Previously known as booking guidelines. A set of information related to a specific service, such as particular booking requirements or rules, procedures performed and conditions treated. This guidance will only become visible to referring clinicians once initial search criteria have been set.
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TC - Treatment Centre
Also known as Diagnostic and Treatment Centres. They provide elective (planned) surgery for a range of conditions, mainly for day surgery or short-term hospital stay patients, making the most efficient use of resources.
TMS - Transaction and Messaging Spine
The message handling application element of the NHS Care Records Service.
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UBRN - Unique Booking Reference Number
An automatically generated reference number which is allocated by the e-booking service (EBS) at the first attempt to create a booking or referral. It is used by the EBS to manage the process, track changes and communicate appointment status.
UKCPRS - UK Standard Clinical Products Reference Source
The UKCPRS Programme is delivering the NHS Dictionary of Medicines and Devices. This dictionary will provide a stable, unique term (description) and identifier (code) for all drugs and devices used in the treatment of patients. www.nhsia.nhs.uk/ukcprs
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W
WAN - Wide Area Network
A geographically dispersed communications network, which can be utilised to support messaging between local sites. Often wide area networks can be used to transport both computer data traffic and telephony.
Wanless Report
The Wanless Report is also known as ‘Securing Our Future Health: Taking A Long-Term View’ - an independent review by Derek Wanless is an evidence-based assessment of the long-term resource requirements for the NHS.
WDC - Workforce Development Confederation
WDCs establish local strategies in support of the national plan for modernisation of the health and social care workforce. The confederations are network organisation made up of NHS, Social Services and Independent Sector employers of health care staff, higher education and other partners. www.neynlwdc.nhs.uk
WHO - World Health Organisation
The United Nations specialised agency for health. www.who.int/en/
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