Ward Access

A frequently asked question is how ward access to PTS is set up and rolled out to ward computers.

In fact, technically, there is very little difference between ward access and internal pharmacy access. By simply logging in to PTS with an appropriate account, ward users will be shown their relevant prescriptions in a suitable read-only view.

More often than not the only missing link is the wards do not have a visible shortcut to the system or are not aware that they already have a username and password.

Setting up PTS access for a new ward

See the Wards page for detailed instructions on creating a new ward in PTS.

As part of the ward creation process, it's possible to automatically create a generic user account for the ward by simply selecting the Create User option during the initial process.

Setting up PTS access for existing wards

See the Users page for detailed instructions on setting up user accounts. The important factors for your consideration are as follows.

Generic ward accounts

Before proceeding, double check that the ward user account doesn't already exist at it's pretty likely that the generic ward account was set up either during the initial installation of the system or when the ward was first added to PTS (see above). Go the the Users setup page and perform a cursory search for the ward name or code before continuing in creating a new generic user account.

If the generic account definitely does not already exist, proceed with creating the user with the following considerations:

1. When creating the user, select the pre-installed Ward Staff role or other appropriate external user role as the template. The important thing is that the role (and therefore the resultant user) has the DISPENSARYSTAFF permission set to No.
2. Set up the account as you see fit, but consider using the ward code as both the username and password and the ward's name as the user's name.
3. Under the Wards tab, add the appropriate ward to the list to give this account access to it.
4. OPTIONAL: If ward staff log in to their PCs with a generic Windows account, you could add the Windows username to the Windows Logins tab to have the account auto-login to PTS.
5. Ward staff can now log in to PTS and see the ward view of their assigned ward.

Individual accounts

Active Directory

AD integration is the best way to achieve individual user account access at scale. See the Active Directory section for more.

Manual account management

1. When creating the user, select the pre-installed Ward Staff role or other appropriate external user role as the template. The important thing is that the role (and therefore the resultant user) has the DISPENSARYSTAFF permission set to No.
2. Set up the individual as you see fit.
3. Under the Wards tab, add the appropriate ward/s to the list to give this user access to it.
4. OPTIONAL: Add their Windows username to the Windows Logins tab to have the account auto-login to PTS.
5. This person can now log in to PTS and see the ward views of any wards you assigned them to.

How to access the PTS system on a ward

PTS is web based software hosted on your Trust intranet. As such, any PC in the Trust should have access to it by opening a web browser and accessing the exact same URL as pharmacy do.

Shortcuts

It's impractical to manually add web shortcuts to each desktop in every ward. With this in mind, your IT department should be able to add a link to the PTS application somewhere on your intranet page. Again, this may already be in place for pharmacy access and the same link should allow wards to log in.

Further options for setting up shortcuts (e.g. desktop shortcuts or browser bookmarks) are available at the discretion of the individual user.