Healthcare Computing customers will have the ability to view the details of Change Request calls through the Customer Portal from the 15th August 2010.

This new ability can be found under the ‘Reports’ section of the Customer Portal.

If you are an existing Healthcare Computing customer, and haven’t yet registered on our Customer Portal, then please contact the Service Desk on 01425 470888 and request a Customer Portal Invitation.

The Healthcare Computing Ltd Customer Portal now enables registered users to alert the Service Desk team when a delivery arrives onsite.  We hope that this alert system will continue to improve the response time of our engineering team if they have been delayed whilst waiting for equipment.

To use this functionality, the new form can be found under the ‘Communications’ menu in the Customer Portal.  This system will immediately alert the Service Desk team without the need for a phone call.

If you haven’t yet registered on our Customer Portal, and are an existing Healthcare Computing customer, then please contact the Service Desk on 01425 470888 and request a Customer Portal Invitation.

Our Customer Portal now includes Search functionality to enable you to quickly find a specific call reference, or to find all calls containing a particular word or phrase.

The search function can be found on the Customer Portal Home Page.

If you are not yet registered to use the Healthcare Computing Customer Portal, please contact our Service Desk team and request a registration invitation.

Please be aware that the latest McAfee DAT file released by McAfee overnight is corrupted. The update can cause issues with Windows, and can stop your PC from booting.  If you reboot your workstation, this action will result in the workstation going into a boot loop.

FOR ALL SITES RUNNING MCAFEE VIRUS PRODUCTS, PLEASE DO NOT REBOOT YOUR PC UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

A fix has been developed and deployment will be ongoing.

If you do have any issues at all, please do not hesitate to contact the Healthcare Computing Service Desk on 01425 470888.

For further information regarding the issue please visit the following website:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/21/mcafee-update–shutting-down-xp-machines/

More information will follow shortly.

Choose and Book is currently fully supported with Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and will be supported by Internet Explorer version 8 from release 4.3, due in April. The ActiveX control currently being distributed for Choose and Book R4.3 is configured to work with Internet Explorer only.

C&B recommends that steps are taken to prevent the browser choice pop-up from appearing to users.

Healthcare Computing have now created a downloadable script which will block the prompt window from appearing. We recommend that this script is downloaded and run on every workstation within GP Practices.

To view screenshots of this prompt window, please see our previous post on this topic at http://www.healthcarecomputing.co.uk/blog/index.php/archive/microsoft-browser-choice-prompt/

Download the Browser Prompt Blocker.

Healthcare Computing has been announced as a Silver Level partner to Riverbed Technologies.

Riverbed Steelhead products accelerate application performance and data transfer over the wide area network (WAN), overcoming bandwidth and geographical limitations to improve productivity and enable global collaboration. With Riverbed, file transfers that once took hours or minutes, now take minutes or seconds.

Steelhead appliances provide a robust, easy to use WAN optimisation capability to your branch sites. With a Riverbed appliance, you can cut bandwidth usage by 60-95% and accelerate applications by up to 100x.

Contact our Sales Team on 01425 483865 to find out more information on a Riverbed solution.

Please be aware that a recent Windows update may prompt for a choice of Web Browser when you initially log onto your PC. 

We recommend that you do not change browser or update your current version of Internet Explorer on any GP surgery workstations.  To skip this process, when you are initially prompted to select a Browser, close the Window using the “X” at the top right of the Window.

Browser Choice first screen

You may still see the following screen, shown below.   Click “X” on this screen as well.

Browser Choice second screen

This will close the windows and allow you to work as normal.  However the next time you reboot your PC you may be prompted for the same thing.  At present it will be necessary to close the window each and every time you are prompted.  We are working on a way to permanently remove the prompt.

You may also notice that a new icon appears on your desktop called ‘Browser Choice’, which you should ignore.

If you have accidently installed a new browser, or need any help or assistance please do call the Service Desk on 01425470888

To download the blocker for the Browser Choice Prompt, please visit our support pages.

EMIS Web is expected to achieve “first of type go-live” in April, according to latest announcement from NHS Connecting for Health.

The much-awaited system from healthcare IT supplier EMIS was originally due to be approved in November, before the latest dates have just been published by CfH in February.

EMIS Web is planned to be released with NHS CFH functionality in three phases:

Release 3.0 is currently in testing with EMIS & CFH.

EMIS’s current development plans for LV and PCS do not go beyond functionality for QOF QMAS 2011/2012, as EMIS intends to migrate all existing users across to EMIS web.

Healthcare Computing are pleased to announce that the functionality of the Customer Portal now includes a new setting that enables ‘Portal Administrators’ to request copies of all auto-generated emails sent to their site.

This means that Portal Administrators will be alerted whenever a Service Call is logged against your site, even if not logged by yourself.

To enable this functionality, click on ‘Settings’ in the menu of the Customer Portal.  Within ‘User Administration’ select your own profile, and drill into the details by clicking the small arrow at the side.  You will now see the new option ‘Receive copies of all email alerts from HCC:’ which you must tick to activate.

Please note that this is only available to ‘Portal Administrators’, which is usually the main contact at each site.

Contact the Service Desk if you need additional instructions to activate this new Customer Portal functionality.

Jon Frowd

Software Developer