Frequently Asked Questions

This is where we list FAQ and their responses.

Why are some brands missing if I click to view 'Equivalents' when prescribing?

If you are prescribing within the formulary, then only Equivalents that are in your forumlary will be displayed. To see all Equivalents, untick the formulary box.
Other examples of the same drug may not be displayed if they are not bio-equivalent e.g. modified-release preparations.

Category: Consultation Manager

How do I validate my NVUG membership for full forum/mailing list access?

Some features of the NVUG forum and mailing lists are open only to validated NVUG members. If you are an NVUG member and are denied posting rights and/or search, here is what you need to do to verify your membership and associate it with your email address and forum account:

If your organisation is not a current paid up member of NVUG, please join and pay your subscription now.
Find your NVUG membership number. This is printed on the certificate sent to your practice when you paid your annual subscription. If you cannot trace the number, you could email admin(at)nvug.org and ask for it to be sent to you - you should provide sufficient details to identify your practice i.e. full practice name, address and postcode, INPS number, national practice code.
Log in to the forum
- If you are unsure of your forum password, use the 'forgot password' link and enter your email address to reset your password - if you are a mailing list user, enter the email address which is subscribed to the mailing list.
- If there is no forum account associated with this email address, use the 'register' link to create a forum account using this email address.
After login, go to the 'Control Panel' (link in top row of forum, next to 'Help').
Go to 'Account Settings'.
Update your settings to verify your NVUG membership - enter your NVUG member number and other details such as practice national code and INPS user number.
Enter your password and click the button marked 'Update'.
Wait a couple of hours for us to validate your data and update your account to give you full member access to forum and mailing list facilities.

Category: Forum and Mailing List

How do I convert height/weight back to Imperial?

Vision has always been able to convert weights. If you enter 7st12lb in the weight field it will display 49.89Kg. Similarly you can enter 5’6” or 5ft 6in in the height screen and Vision will display 1.676m,

Since DLM310 the reverse conversion is also possible. Weight entered in metric units can now be displayed in Imperial units. You simply tick the Imperial box on the new weight structured data area.

Category: Consultation Manager

How do I print from Vision to a TIFF file?

The trick is to install a TIFF printer driver, and to select that as your printer when you want to generate a TIFF file instead of printing to paper.

Vision often does not give you an opportunity to select a printer at the point of printing, but you can overcome this by setting your TIFF printer driver as your default printer before opening your guideline or report or whatever (but do remember to set it back to your usual printer after you have created your TIFF output).

SCIMP provides detailed instructions for setting up the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer as a TIFF Printer Driver.

Category: Consultation Manager

How do I print from Vision to a PDF file?

The trick is to install a PDF printer driver, and to select that as your printer when you want to generate a PDF file instead of printing to paper.

Vision often does not give you an opportunity to select a printer at the point of printing, but you can overcome this by setting your PDF printer driver as your default printer before opening your guideline or report or whatever (but do remember to set it back to your usual printer after you have created your PDF output).

There are several PDF printer drivers available, some of them free (but may show advertising popups). CutePDF and DoPDF, the first two listed, are free and explicitly allows commercial use as well as private use.

NVUG has not tested these products, but users have reported success with CutePDF and pdf995.

CutePDF
DoPDF
pdf995
pdf24
PDF4Free
deskPDF (free trial)
PDFcamp (not free)

Category: Consultation Manager

How should I record a DNA?

Even though it is tempting as an easy way to open the record, it is best if you don't select the patient by clicking their name on the appointment screen in Consultation Manager. The problem with doing this is that this will appear in the appointments database that they did arrive (at the time that you opened the record) and so any appointments statistics that you generate will be inaccurate.

Instead:

Either
- Use the main Appointments module screen (NOT the appointments screen in Consultation Manager) and right-click on their name to select them and open the record, or
- Find and select the patient in Consultation Manager in the usual way (e.g. click the little blue man, or use F3, or click Consultation / Select a Patient)
It would be appropriate to set the Consultation Type to Admin instead of leaving it at the default which may be Surgery or Other
Add an appropriate Read code such as 9N42 (Did not attend - no reason)
Exit the patient record

If you record your DNAs in this way then the Appointments module report Search / Did Not Attend Report can give you an accurate picture of your DNAs.

Category: Vision - General

Why do the epilepsy and thyroid Registers show Zero Patients and consequently no Reminders?

Tip for Epilepsy and Thyroid QOF Domains

For the first six months of the QOF year the reminders from Clinical Audit are inaccurate. There are two audits available, Reporting and Monitoring. In both epilepsy and thyroid you need to have the diagnosis and a relevant prescription witin the 6 months to the reference date.

For the monitoring audit the reference date is end of the previous month, so the register of patients will be accurate, but the other lines in the domain will include activity in the last 15 months. Therefore a thyroid function test or epilepsy medication review in November last year will count and the reminder will not appear.

For the reporting audit, the reference date is April next year, so the disease register will only start to fill up in October as patients are prescribed the relevant medication.

Previously there were monitoring audits with 6, 9 and 12 months windows but these were lost in the last big update of Clinical Audit. NVUG has requested that they are reinstated. Until then there are some ways to work around.

You can now easily search on the disease registers of the monitoring audits. For the thyroid domain, search on the thyroid registers of the monitoring audits and find everyone who does not have a TSH measurement since 1/1/09. Save the patients to a group then add a reminder to this group. At the beginning of next month you need to remove the reminder from the group; repeat the search; save to a group then add the reminder.

The same can be done for epilepsy. In this case you need to look for patients without a Clinical entry since 1/1/10 of the Read code of 6675, 667F or 667P - 667V for seizure frequency or 8B1F, 667X, 6677-667A for epilepsy medication review. If you search for Clinical entries you will find entries made using these codes both in the history or Structured Data Areas (SDA).

Category: QOF

How do I bulk-transfer patients' registrations to a different partner without generating new registration dates for all transferred patients?

Instead of using the "Bulk Transfer" options (on the Transfer menu in Registrations), use the "Partnership Reallocation" option on the same menu. This does the same job, but does not change the registration dates.

Category: Vision - General

Why is EZMLM warning or probing me?

Short answer: Ignore it. Your email system is not perfect (some messages have bounced) but it hasn't (yet) died completely (the warning or probe message got through to you) and so you won't (yet) be thrown off the mailing list.

Long Answer:

This indicates that some emails to you from the nvug mailing lists bounced (failed to deliver). This could be due to a problem with your mail setup at surgery or at home, or to your PCT or ISP mail server, or to NHS/N3//Internet networks generally.

If this happens then some mailing list software simply removes you from the mailing list. And if the software doesn't remove you the administrator may well do so since they get fed up with your bounced messages landing in their inbox.

This mailing list software (EZMLM) is a little more sophisticated. It automatically handles bounces instead of dumping them in the administrators inbox. It keeps track of which messages bounced so that it can tell you which ones you missed, and it sends you a message to warn you that you have missed them and includes instructions on how to retrieve them.

If the warning message also bounces then maybe your email address is dead. A probe message is sent to check if it really is dead. If this also bounces then you are automatically removed from the mailing list. You can't be advised of this (emails to you are not getting through) and there is no point sending more messages to a dead address.

There is a grace period built in (ten to twenty days) between the warning and the probe, so this allows time for a temporary fault to be cleared. So you won't be thrown off the mailing list just because you bounced a couple of messages when you went on holiday and your mailbox overflowed for a few days, or when your cleaner switched off your practice mailserver at the weekend. But you will be removed if for a prolonged period you continue to bounce messages.

If you see a warning or probe message in your inbox then you know that at least one message to you has bounced. But you also know that, this time around at least, you are not being removed from the mailing list (if you saw the warning or probe then that means that it didn't bounce, and so EZMLM will know that your address is now working again).

If you do find that messages stop arriving please don't send test messages to the list. Instead simply resubscribe. You don't even need to check whether you really are unsubscribed, since there is no harm in resubscrbing even if you haven't been unsubscribed.

Category: Forum and Mailing List

How do I unsubscribe from the mailing lists?

Two ways:

Login to the Forum, then go to the link near the top for the 'Control Panel', the select 'Settings', then you can click the buttons to subscribe/unsubscribe the mailing lists.
Send a request to the appropriate mailing list robot:

Category: Forum and Mailing List

How do I subscribe to the mailing lists?

Do this even if you dont want to use the forum, since it gives you the option to search the archives (non-functional to non-logged in forum visitors).

During the forum signup there are radio buttons to click to subscribe to the mailing lists: the vision list, the newusers list, and the tech list.

You can subscribe to lists only, without signing up to the forum, (but will miss out on the search option) by sending email requests to the appropriate list robot:

Category: Forum and Mailing List

When I search the forum I get no results?

The forum is configured not to show you any results on searches if you are not logged in. So before doing a search you should first login to the forum. (If you are not registered then you will need to register to create an account).

It is configured like this to protect the email addresses on the messages posted there. Spammers like to collect batches of email addresses from websites and forums. By requiring a login before viewing any messages, even including search results, we protect your email addresses from spammers.

Category: Forum and Mailing List

How do I access the Forum?

Go to the forum page.

If you have not yet registered, use the link near top-right of the forum, labelled 'Register' and fill in your details.

Your application will be reviewed by one of the forum moderators and after it has been accepted you will be able to login, view the messages, search, and post your own messages and replies.

Category: Forum and Mailing List

How to search in Vision?

Read the article on the VisionBlogged blog.

Category: Vision - General

How do I switch DXS off/on?

DXS can be switched on/off per user (i.e. different users can have different settings), by going to the Professional tab of Staff Maintenance in Control Panel. Locate the user, right-click and select edit, then tick/untick the DXS checkbox.

To be able to access this option you will need to be logged as a user who has sufficient security rights to be able to edit users in Control Panel, so most users cannot switch DXS Off/On for themselves.

Category: Consultation Manager