Thanks for Visiting
& Get Well Soon
Oland Msg Brd Upgrade Coming Mid Sept.
As members of our community will already be aware, we have some new message board/community software in the works. I’m pleased to be able to announce that the Ostomyland Message Board will be upgraded to the Invision Power Board system during the weekend of September 12/13/14th. During this time our message board will be unavailable to allow us to work on the database and website.
The new software will give us lots of new features that will help make Ostomyland more streamlined in it’s use as well as offering new services such as free blogs for all members, integrated one-click access to our chat room, facebook connect features and free photo gallery service.
We are asking all members whom have stored private messages on our message board to make copies of them, as these will not be converted over to the new board. We hope to be able to convert about 99% of all member accounts and current threads/posts, but there is always the chance of corruption during the conversion process so we are also advising members that if they have any favourite threads to make back ups of them just in case they do get lost in transit – so to speak. 
Full details of how to do this can be found in the full announcement linked to below.
Message Board Downtime and Upgrade Announcement:
http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboard/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8840
Ten medical supply companies form consortium to pass NHS CFH common assurance process
Ten home-delivery stoma and continence care companies have made a joint-investment to make their IT systems ETP2 compliant in order to pass the NHS Connecting For Health (CFH) Common Assurance Process.
Working with Quicksilva, an independent provider of software and services to the public sector, they will be spreading the cost of compliance, speeding their time to market and ensuring that they do not lose competitive advantage to the larger dispensing companies.
The collaboration was spearheaded by Trent Direct and Countrywide Supplies. They knew that they had the underlying software that Quicksilva could develop for compliance testing, but that it would be financially non-viable to proceed with just two businesses alone.
In an unprecedented step, they invited competitors from across the UK to a series of workshops to discuss the possibility of working together and sharing the cost.
There are now ten companies in the consortium: Trent Direct, Countrywide Supplies, Homestyle Positive, Labont, AlphaMed, Jade Euro-Med, South Yorkshire Ostomy Supplies, Moorland Surgical Supplies, UCI Healthcare and Ainsworth Surgical.
Andrew Leese, MD, Trent Direct: “Before we met with Quicksilva we felt as though we were in a no-win situation. We knew that we had to become compliant; the future of healthcare is digital and we have to be able to process prescriptions electronically or else we will lose business. However, the costs associated of doing this on our own and developing a whole new system were utterly unfeasible.”
To achieve ETP2 compliance, the prerequisite to access the NHS Spine, the consortium decided to implement Quicksilva’s patented Spinal Tap solution and their Spine-in-a-Box test environment. Spinal Tap is designed for organisations who want to adapt their systems so that they can communicate with the NHS Spine.
It is a secure messaging engine that automatically handles translation of messaging between existing systems and the Spine’s HL7 language, managing the difficulties of back end communication. Spine-in-a-Box acts as a dummy of the NHS Spine so that the system can be thoroughly tested before the official testing by the NHS.
Compliance will ensure that all businesses within the consortium will be able to access the NHS Spine, the central IT database, securely in real time. This is of paramount importance to companies who must be compliant to become a nominated prescription supplier, either at a hospital or at a GP. Once compliant, all of the companies will be able to receive electronic prescriptions directly from the point of diagnosis and then send an electronic receipt after delivery. This will remove the paper process, enhancing speed and eliminating opportunities for human error.
Peter Stockley, Countrywide Supplies: “This level of collaboration between competitive companies is unprecedented in our industry. However, we knew it was a case of comply or die. We all left our swords at the door and talked frankly about how we needed to trust each other and work together.
"Quicksilva have been integral to fostering these relationships and we are confident that with their help this process should be as quick as possible and we will all soon be reaping the benefits.”
Gayna Hart, MD, Quicksilva: “This consortium is the most innovative approach I have seen amongst NHS suppliers. These businesses are trading in a highly competitive environment but by working together they are meeting this business challenge and proving that there’s strength in numbers. “
New Chat Stats Page
We’re busy giving our message board community and chat room a recamp. In the near future you’ll be able to log into the chat room via the message board, making connection and chatting considerably easier.
In the meantime we’ve just launched our newly updated Chatroom Stats page. Automatically updated by Pooh (the channel bot) every ten minutes, the stats page shows the top 25 chatters usage statistics along with photos of them, random quotes for each of the 25 (which can often be hilarious when taken out of context), and lots of fun facts such as most used words, who said the most along with charts and graphs of chat room usage.
It’s a really fun page and a firm chatter favourite, so even if you dont join in the chat room why not check out our new stats page. You can find it at:
http://www.ostomyland.com/olandstats/
Want your picture on the stats?
If you are a chat user, and want your picture added to the script ready for when you break into the top 25 users, then please email the photo to me as an attachment, or preferably a URL to its location on the internet. I also need your channel nickname and any reserve names you may have (such as away nicks etc) and I’ll do the rest!
Dont forget though that you have to be in the top 25 chatters for the photo to show, so thats as good an excuse as ever to join todays weekly support chat meeting (8pm UK / 3pm EST ish) and have a good ol’ chat! Chat room is also open 24/7 for off topic chat or impromptu support chats.
Mailshot Round Up: Aug 1st 2009
Salts Healthcare has just sent out the Summer 2009 edition of its Salts Medilink magazine – the magazine for it’s Home Delivery and Stoma Care line.
Celebrating it’s 20th Anniversary, the 12 page “Medilink” magazine, which is professionally edited and produced, features articles and product reviews such as the following:
- Harmony Duo
- Dermacol – A Global Success
- Something for the Little Ones (Paediatric pouches)
- OBE for Ostomist – Brian Sibbald gets his O.B.E from the Queen in June
- Awesome Weekend In Wales – Review of the Breakaway weekend (which we’ve featured in detail here on Ostomyland)
- … and lots more!
If you are in the UK (only) and would like a copy, please contact the Salts Healthcare Medilink freephone customer phone line on 0800 626388
For more on Salts Healthcare, please visit Ostomyland’s Manufactuers section where you’ll find an entry for them which was produced with their help and blessing.
Useful Links:
Ostomyland’s Salts Healthcare page
External Links:
Salts Healthcare Website
Salts Medilink Home Delivery Service
