Living and Dying Well: Electronic Palliative Care Summary (ePCS)

ELECTRONIC PALLIATIVE CARE SUMMARY (ePCS)

The electronic Palliative Care Summary (ePCS) allows practices to:

Replace the fax form used to send patient information to Out of Hours services
Clearly see essential information on patients with palliative care needs
View or print lists of patients on the practice Palliative Care Register
Set review dates to ensure regular review of patients

The information allows practices to build up Anticipatory Care Plans which may include:

medical diagnoses as agreed between GP and patient
patient and carer understanding of diagnosis and prognosis
patient wishes on preferred place of care and resuscitation (DNACPR)
information on medication and equipment left in the patient's home 'just in case'
current prescribed medication and allergies, as per the Emergency Care Summary (ECS)

Useful Documents

Useful documents relating to the project can be found at the links below. Please note that this includes guidance for use of ePCS in the GPASS and EMIS systems. Guidance for use of ePCS in INPS (Vision) can be found at http://www.inps4.co.uk/my_vision/guidelines/ where you should scroll down to the section called "ePCS Guideline for Scotland". Documentation is available in PowerPoint and PDF formats.

For GPASS users only. If your ePCS Icon has disappeared, a guidance document is available to help you retrieve it. Please click on the link to view the document. LOST ePCS ICON

Taycare-specific guidance is available at this link: 3 step guide to accessing ePCS in Taycare

1 April 2011: The ePCS Patient Information leaflet has been translated into Mandarin Chinese, Polish and Urdu. These are available in PDF format under the link to the English leaflet, below. Please also note that a British Sign Language (BSL) translation of the leaflet is available in DVD format. Please contact Richard Dimelow ( richard.dimelow@scotland.gsi.gov.uk) or Sarah Buchanan ( sarah.buchanan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk) at the Scottish Government to request copies.

Gold Standards Prognostic Indicators Guidance

ePCS Patient Information Leaflet

ePCS Patient Information Leaflet_Chinese

ePCS Patient Information Leaflet_Polish

ePCS Patient Information Leaflet_Urdu

ePCS Update March 2011

ePCS Workshop LDW 3rd December 2009

First Steps in using ePCS September 2010

ePCS and KIS SCIMP presentation November 2010

ePCS presentation September 2010

Spotlight Palliative Care - BMJ September 2010

Frequently Asked Questions (as at February 2011)