Choose and Book Compliance Document (PDF, 850Kb)

3.2 Choose and Book OverviewCentral to the understanding of Choose and Book is the concept of a Service. A Service ispublished by a Service Provider Organisation as the entity to which patients may be referrede.g. “Orthopaedic paediatrics”. Each Service Provider Organisation uses the Choose andBook application to maintain details of the Services that it offers. Choose and Book holdsthese Service Definitions within its Directory of Services.Choose and Book sends messages to each registered Service Provider System (e.g.hospital PAS) and requests free slots for each Service configured in the Directory ofServices. This is referred to as polling and will occur in quiet periods, typically overnight.The frequency can be controlled via the Directory of Services. Choose and Book will use theinformation returned to maintain a cache of free slots and Choose and Book users browsethis cache to locate available slots into which to book appointments. At booking time,messages are exchanged between systems to ensure that the slot selected from the Chooseand Book cache is still available in the Service Provider System and the appointment canthen be confirmed to the user.Workers in Referring organisations will login to their IT system. The user will beauthenticated with the NCRS National Security Architecture and will be allocated a sessiontoken. The Session token can be read by applications such as Choose and Book and isused to confirm the user’s identity, role and organisation.The Referrer may open a patient record within their IT system and decide to refer a patientto a Service Provider. The users IT system will first message Choose and Book with thepatient’s NHS Number and receive a Unique Booking Reference Number (UBRN) fromChoose and Book in return. The users IT system will then perform a “UBRN seamlesstransition” to the Choose and Book web application, launching Choose and Book with thespecific patient in the context of creating a new Appointment Request. Now in Choose andBook, the user will select the most suitable Services according to the needs and preferencesof the patient, taking into account the Commissioning Rules in place between the ReferrersPCT and Service Provider Organisations. From Release 3.0, Services will also be eligiblefor shortlisting by the referrer if the Service Provider belongs to the Extended ChoiceNetwork (ECN).At this point there is a choice of workflows depending on the circumstances and user choice.• The user may go on to search for available slots for the Services within the Choose andBook cache and may select the most suitable to book. Choose and Book will messagethe appropriate Service Provider system to confirm that an appointment has been made.The Referrer may print the confirmation screen for the Patient, and additionally anappointment letter may be printed by the Service Provider system according to localpolicy.• Alternatively the patient may want to defer the decision, perhaps to research theshortlisted Services or to consult family members about suitable dates. That being thecase an ‘Appointment Request’ is printed for the Patient that details the shortlistedServices together with the UBRN.At a later date the patient has a choice of routes to make the appointment.• Via the referring organisation,Choose and BookAtos Origin - Commercial In ConfidenceChoose and Book ComplianceVersion: 8 (final)Reference EBS-AN\BA\BA011 9 May 2007Page 22