User Views

User views, sometimes known as homepages, are how users and pharmacies can view and interact with the live prescription data flowing through PTS and are the primary viewpoint into your system data. Whether it be the pharmacy homepages, the ward views, outpatient collection status screen or the mobile app; all are customised user views.

This page discusses how user views are created. See the User Views & Homepages page for more information on user views.

Creating a new user view

There are three ways user views can be created or modified:

1. From the Roles setup page.
   This is ideal for designing a user view that should be used by a wide number of users, such as internal views for all pharmacy staff.
2. From the Users setup page.
   For creating or amending user views for an individual user.
3. From the home page actions menu.
   If the user has the EDITVIEWS permission they can create or modify their own user views from the actions menu.

No matter where the user view is created from the process is broadly the same.

While it may seem self-evident that user views are best created from the Users setup page this is usually not true. When user views are created or modified on the Users setup page, or by the user themselves from the actions menu, that new user view is only created or modified for that individual user. That is sometimes the desired outcome of course, but more often than not it makes sense for user views to be created equally for whole groups of users. For example all pharmacy staff likely need access to all outstanding prescriptions for their entire pharmacy, ward staff should only be able to see prescriptions for their assigned ward, and porters probably only need to see bagged prescriptions that are waiting for collection & delivery. For examples like this it is best to create user views via the Roles setup page.

When creating a new user view or modifying an existing one, carefully consider whether it should apply to multiple users or just an individual.

From the Roles setup page

The user views tab. This screenshot is via the roles popup on the roles setup page, but the tab looks and works the same in the user setup page.

From the Roles setup page, click on the applicable role in the list, and then from the role popup, click on the User Views tab.

Click the edit button next to a user view to modify it, click the delete button to remove it, or click the add button to create a new one.

From the Users setup page

From the Users setup page, click on the applicable user in the list, and then from the user popup, click on the User Views tab.

Click the edit button next to a user view to modify it, click the delete button to remove it, or click the add button to create a new one.

From an existing user view or homepage

Open the actions menu and choose either New User View or Edit Current User View.

User view popup

Whether creating a new user view or editing an existing one, the process plays out in the user view popup.

Details tab

The details tab in the user view popup.

An example of the on-screen scanner type of user view.

An example of the dispensary display type of user view.

An example of the outpatient display type of user view.

An example of the report(s) view type of user view.

• Description
  The name of the user view.
• Default
  If a user view is marked as the default view, then it will be the view that is initially displayed when the user logs in to PTS.
• Index
  Specify the position on the menu that the user view appears, allowing you to re-order them.
• Refresh Interval
  The maximum amount of time between user view refreshes. PTS 5 is a real time application and for the most part any relevant activity will be reflected immediately on the user view. However if there is no such activity, the user view will refresh according to this setting in order for certain important fields such as turnaround times, progress bars and reports to be kept up to date. There should never be any need for this to be under 60 seconds.
• Progress bar style
  The options for this setting are as follows (be advised "RAG" refers to "red, amber, green"):
  1. RAG progress bar
     A progress bar fills up from left to right as the prescription approaches its target time according to the prescription type. The bar starts green and turns amber as it approaches the target and finally turns red if the prescription misses its target.
  2. RAG solid background
     Uses the same red, amber and green colours as the RAG progress bar, however the background is solid and not a growing progress bar. This is sometimes a necessary alternative for accessibility reasons.
  3. Activity progress bar
     A progress bar fills up from left to right as the prescription approaches its target time according to the prescription type. The bar takes the colour of the colour assigned to the activity, with a border that uses the familiar RAG colours from the first two options.
  4. Activity solid background
     Uses the same colour scheme as the activity progress bar, however the background is solid and not a growing progress bar. This is sometimes a necessary alternative for accessibility reasons.
• Show Related Batches
  Relates to Aseptics.
• Show Prescription Id’s
  Whether prescription IDs are shown on the user view. Ticket numbers will still be displayed. For the most part it is best to leave this setting turned on.
• Show RX / Item Stats
  Applies to Dispensary Display type user views and determines whether prescription and item statistics appear at the top of the user view.
• Display Average Wait
  Applies to Outpatient Display type user views and determines whether the current average wait time is displayed at the top of the user view.
• Reports
  Applies to Report type user views and determines which reports are displayed.
• Type of View
  Depending on the primary purpose of the user view you can select the most appropriate Type from the following options:
  1. Standard View
     The standard type of user view as broadly described on the User Views & Homepages page.
  2. On-screen scanner
     A compact version of the standard view where groups are collapsed by default. You can perform the various prescription actions (such as recording the next activity or a note) directly from the list without having to open a separate prescription details popup. Ideal for small screen devices, views that encompass a lot of data, or for when the primary purpose is to quickly perform prescription actions on-screen.
  3. Dispensary Display
     This view is designed to be displayed on a dedicated large screen in the dispensary. This gives staff an opportunity to manage the dispensary at a glance. The optional summary statistics shows the number of prescriptions that are on target, approaching and exceeding their target time. See Launching Display Screens for a technical guide on how to display the screen automatically.
  4. Outpatient Display
     Sometimes known as the "Argos screen", this view is designed to be displayed on a dedicated screen in the outpatients waiting area, or in fact anywhere where your patients may be waiting. By definition it typically shows outpatient prescriptions but it can show any type of prescription just like the other types of user view. In addition, video and messages can be displayed on this screen. See Launching Display Screens for a technical guide on how to display the screen automatically.
  5. Delivery Display
     This view is designed to be displayed on a dedicated screen for the benefit of your porters and is intended to display prescriptions as they go through the delivery process.
  6. Report(s) View
     This view is designed to display live versions of your reports. By designing reports as a user view you can rapidly generate and view any reports that need to be produced on a regular basis, or that provide a useful overview of your dispensary status.
  7. Mobile App Screen
     This type of view is used when the user logs in via the PTS mobile app for iOS and Android. Only user views of this type are displayed on the app, and conversely, views of this type are not displayed on the main PTS application.

Filters tab

The filters tab is where you define which prescriptions are returned and displayed by the user view.

The filters tab. This example is being configured to return prescriptions for the default dispensary, with incomplete or suspended status, that were booked in within the last thirty days.

Filter sets

Each user view is comprised of one or more filter sets. This is where you can define the characteristics that a prescription must meet to be displayed by the user view, or to put it another way, how you filter out any prescriptions that you do not want displayed in the user view.

Prescriptions must match all of the filter criteria within a filter set to be selected by that filter set. By adding more filters to the filter set you continually reduce the sample of prescriptions and can focus the data to the specific requirements of the user view.

Adding and removing filters

Adding a filter. There are many different filter types to choose from.

Having chosen a filter to add, you will then be prompted to enter the desired value for the filter. In this example a ward filter has been chosen and the user is prompted to select which wards should be included.

Click the Add button to add a new filter. You will then be able to choose the filter you want to add from a popup.

The available filters are as follows:

• % of delivery target
• % of target
• Activity
• Bag
• Bagged
• Cancellation recorded date
• Cancellation recorded?
• Cancellations
• Cancelled
• Cancelled by
• Collected
• Collected by
• Collected day of week
• Collected time
• Collection note recorded date
• Collection note recorded?
• Collection notes
• Completed
• Completed by
• Completed day of week
• Completed time
• Current ward
• Delivered
• Delivered by
• Delivered day of week
• Delivered time
• Delivery note recorded date
• Delivery note recorded?
• Delivery notes
• Dispensary
• Drugs
• Duration (mins) from time collected to time delivered
• Duration (mins) from time completed to time collected
• Duration (mins) from time requested to time started
• Duration (mins) from time started to time completed
• Error recorded date
• Error recorded?
• Errors
• Hospital No.
• NHS No.
• No. of Items
• No. of Items Dispensed
• Normal note recorded date
• Normal note recorded?
• Normal notes
• Notes text contains
• Orig. ward
• Patient D.O.B.
• Patient Gender
• Patient Name
• Prescription ID
• Prescription type
• Printer
• RAG status
• Requested
• Requested day of week
• Requested time
• Started
• Started by
• Started day of week
• Started time
• Status
• Suspend Duration (mins)
• Suspension recorded date
• Suspension recorded?
• Suspensions
• System note recorded date
• System note recorded?
• System notes
• Target comp. time
• Target del. time
• Ticket no.
• Ward Group

After choosing the filter from the list you will then be prompted to input the desired value/s for that filter. For example, selecting the Ward filter will have you select the appropriate wards from a list, and choosing Started will have you enter a date range ("Started" referring to the date and time a prescription was started).

To remove an existing filter, click the delete button that appears next to it.

Multiple filter sets

Completed filter sets based on the outpatient screen example described in this section.

As discussed you can add many filters as you like to a filter set. By adding more filters to a filter set you add more criteria that a prescription must meet to be displayed and therefore refine the data further and (in all likelihood) make the sample smaller with each additional filter.

However there are occasions where you would want a user view to combine multiple sets of data. A particularly good example is an outpatients display screen; it goes without saying you probably want to include incomplete or waiting for collection prescriptions, but you may also want to include prescriptions that were suspended or cancelled recently (e.g. up to 45 minutes ago) to give patients a chance to notice the change to their prescription. In addition, as many Trusts do not manually record collection, they may prefer to display completed prescriptions for a certain amount of time before letting them disappear from the screen naturally. These ideas conflict with each other as they rely on different uses of the Status filter, yet we would like them all to appear on the same user view.

To achieve this you should make use of additional filter sets. When multiple filter sets are employed, a prescription can meet the criteria of any of the filter sets to be considered a match and be displayed in the user view.

To add a new filter set, click the button.

A new, blank filter set will be added which you can then build using the same tools. Filter sets operate independently of each other and a prescription need only match the criteria of one filter set to be returned by the user view.

For the technically minded, imagine that the individual filters are conditioned with an AND, which are parenthesised to form the filter set, and then combined with any other filter sets with an OR.

Troubleshooting

It is easy to misunderstand when and when not to use multiple filter sets.

To summarise the above, each additional filter within a single filter set reduces the sample size. Adding a new filter set lets you include an additional, completely unrelated sample that might otherwise be mutually exclusive to the first. A prescription need only match the criteria of one of the filter sets to be returned by the user view.

A common mistake we see is to apply a date/time filter in a filter set where you are also trying to return prescriptions that don't match it due to the current status of the prescription, such as using a Completed time range in the same filter set as a Status = Incomplete filter. As incomplete prescriptions by definition do not have a completed time, they are entirely filtered out. As these criteria are in conflict with each other, they can and should be configured as different filter sets in the user view.

Similarly, if you applied a Status = Pending filter (to return pending prescriptions), but also a Started time filter, this would exclude all of the Pending prescription for the simple reason that pending prescriptions have not yet been started at all. In this example, the user probably wanted to use a Requested filter for the date/time range, rather than Started, or they could use two filter sets to return prescriptions that were either Started within a certain time frame, or Requested within a certain time frame.

Sorting tab

The sorting tab. This example will group by prescription type in alphabetical order, and then within those groups sort the prescriptions in order of those most near their target time.

Sorting a user view allows you to determine the order in which the prescriptions will appear on the user view. You can choose the field that is to be used for sorting and whether the sort is in ascending or descending order. You can add additional sorting parameters (i.e. secondary and tertiary sorts) and the order of priority.

Click the add button to create a new sort and click the delete button to remove an existing one.

Grouping

When adding a new sort you'll be given the option to group the results by the field you are sorting on. As you would expect, enabling this option will group your results by the selected parameter. On a standard user view it's quite common to group by prescription type, which would organise the home page into groups of the various prescription types currently in progress.

The user view can only be grouped by one parameter.

Grouping user views not only organises the prescriptions but crucially allows the user to select and therefore perform certain on-screen actions on the group as a whole (such as the actions for selected prescriptions accessible from the user view actions menu) by clicking the tick box in the groups header to select all of its prescriptions. This requires the user to have the ENDOFDAY permission, so named as it is invariably used to clear down groups of prescriptions at the end of the working day.

Grouping and the mobile app

Grouping user views is borderline essential when setting up a view for the mobile app on account of the aforementioned ability to action groups as a whole. As your porters or delivery staff will surely be working with prescriptions placed into bags or organised by ward, for example, it's important to group their user views in the same way so as to allow them to collect and deliver the bag or ward as a whole. If you don't do this they will be presented with a list of individual prescriptions to collect and deliver one by one.