PCS is excellent in presentation, functionality and flexibility

October 2005: EMIS PCS - a practice perspective

Dollar Health Centre is a medium-sized, semi-rural practice in Fife with a patient list size of 4,500. The practice has been using EMIS PCS for approximately 18 months.

Practice Manager, Roslynne O'Connor, explains what the practice values most about EMIS PCS:

"We are a paper-light practice so our clinical system plays a huge part in day to day working life. Everyone in the practice finds that EMIS PCS is a user-friendly system. The main benefits are its flexibility for each user, as well as good messaging and communication functions.

"There are a number of specific examples of what we rate about the system: we particularly like the practice wide synonyms - they allow us to enter quick abbreviations into the system for phrases we use over and over again, which saves us a lot of time.

"The partners have found that the consultation mode is very versatile, they particularly like being able to navigate around the record without having to file the consultation. The filters are good - they help you find information very quickly, and the templates are excellent, particularly as they include hyperlinks.

"We all work part-time so we've found that the integrated tasks module - although cumbersome to start with as we weren't used to it - now works very well for us.

"Since implementing EMIS PCS we have seen some definite results. The challenges of the nGMS came along at the same time and we did very well with the QOF - and the system played a significant role in our achievement. Since then we have employed new staff, including a healthcare assistant and we have noticeably improved care in the diabetes and hypertension areas.

"Overall, PCS is excellent in presentation, functionality and flexibility and I would recommend it to other practices."