NORSe

1. NORSe Neurosurgical On Call Referral System

2. About NORSe • NORSe (Neurosurgical On-call Referral System) is a web application that allows NHS acute trusts to make requests for advice to the Neurosurgery clinicians at UHB NHS Foundation Trust. UHB Neurosurgery clinicians receive an email notification to their on-call blackberry, and will respond to the requestor via the NORSe web application. • Prior to NORSe being available such referral requests were normally made via a telephone call to the UHB switchboard, the switchboard would then bleep the relevant clinician who would respond to the bleep and subsequent dialogue would take place via telephone. Whilst the facility for external NHS organisations to telephone the UHB Neurosurgery clinicians remains, all such requests are now recorded on NORSe.

3. About NORSe NORSe offers the following benefits: • All request and advice information is recorded and there is a clear audit trail as to what is requested and what is advised. • Referring clinicians receive instant acknowledgement that their request has been logged, and can receive an email acknowledgement whenever UHB update the referral details with a new message or a management plan. • UHB clinicians have mobile access to NORSe via their on-call blackberry and will therefore get instant notice of new requests, and will be able to respond appropriately. • Less time will be wasted in contacting UHB Neurosurgery via switchboard and the subsequent bleeping of the relevant clinicians.

4. Log On • Visit the NORSe url: http://nww.norse.uhb.nhs.uk/norse/ • Enter the username and password given to you by your system administrator: <name>

5. Opening page - Referral List • Once logged in you will see a list of all active referral requests logged by your trust. • You can use the surname and Referral ID quick search facility to find a particular referral (or the Referral Search button to carry out other searches).

6. Log a New Referral Request • Click on

7. Log a New Referral Request Enter the details as required: Fields with an asterisk are mandatory. Unknown can be entered. Please always try and submit an accurate NHS number Your email address and contact number will auto-populate if your system administrator included them when setting you up. If details identifying the patient are not known at the time of submitting the request, please include them in future messages that you post for this referral request. The system will use the email address you enter here to send acknowledgment emails every time the referral is updated with a new message or management plan. Use the GCS key to enter an accurate GCS rating

8. Viewing a Referral Request • Find the referral and click on to view

9. Viewing a Referral Request • The details entered when the referral was submitted are displayed at the top of the window Scroll down for more information

10. Viewing a Referral Request • Scroll down to view the details of the message and management plan chronology

11. Posting a Message • View the referral details • Type in a new message in the space underneath the message details • Click on send to submit

12. Posting a Message • Your message will appear in the message list in chronological order • Click on close or x to close the referral and return to the main referral list

13. Closing a Referral • To request that a referral is closed click on the button

14. Closing a Referral • Enter a reason for requesting the close and • Click on OK • Note: Once closed you can not reopen a referral request . In such cases you will need to submit a new referral request and in the details make it clear that it relates to a previously logged referral request.

15. Important Information about NORSe • When you submit a new referral request to UHB Neurosurgery, they will receive an alert on their on-call Blackberry. Therefore they know immediately that a request has been submitted. • When UHB Neurosurgery respond to a referral request, the system will send an email to the email address entered when the referral was originally submitted. The email alerts continue to be sent every time a message is posted by either party. • NORSe allows the referrer and UHB Neurosurgery to have a text dialogue about the patient. There may be a few messages posted between each party before UHB Neurosurgery provide a management plan. • All messages and management plans entered on NORSe are recorded along with the date, time and name of the user posting the message .

16. Important Information about NORSe • When the dialogue concludes, the referral request should be closed, otherwise it will remain on your active list. You can request that a referral request is closed by simply clicking on the red cross and entering a reason. • On closing a referral UHB Neurosurgery need to validate the patient details; therefore it is important that the patient’s details are entered accurately on the system. If details identifying the patient are not known at the time of submitting the request, please include them in future messages that you post for the referral request (even as part of the close request). Please always try and submit an accurate NHS number • Remember NORSe does not replace the telephone although it definitely reduces the need for phone calls and it helps reduce the time both parties spend waiting to get through. The UHB Neurosurgery on-call numbers are clearly displayed on the NORSe application screen: 0121 371 3734, 07702 954 219

17. Important downtime information • NORSe should be available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. • However in the event that NORSe is not available you will need to revert to using the telephone. UHB Neurosurgery will record the information manually and update NORSe retrospectively when it is available again. • The UHB Neurosurgery on-call numbers are clearly displayed on the NORSe application screen: 0121 371 3734, 07702 954 219

18. Your NORSe Contacts • Any NORSe questions or issues that you need to report should be reported to your Trust’s NORSe contacts: • <Name> , <phone>, <email>