Glossary
Acute Care - Hospital-based health services
C&B - Choose and Book
Allows patients, in partnership with health and care professionals, to book first outpatient appointments at the most appropriate date, time and place for the patient.
Cluster
A group of strategic health authorities working together by region to implement new technology and information systems.
Community Care
Locally-based health or social care services provided to patients in and around their homes.
CFH - see 'NHS CFH'
Deployment
Installing, setting up, testing and running new software.
DH - Department of Health
Aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people in England by providing health and social care policy, guidance and publications.
DTC - Diagnostic and Treatment Centres
Fast track treatment centres for short stay, low risk, high volume elective healthcare.
eSAP - Electronic Single Assessment Process
A Standard designed to ensure that people receive appropriate, effective and timely responses to their health care and social care needs, and that professional resources are used effectively.
ETP - Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions
ETP enables GPs/prescribers to send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies.
Flexible Working
Harnessing communications technology to transform the way an organisation runs, moving from a more static, site-based workforce to one that works flexibly and/or from home.
GP - General Practitioner
A person who is fully registered with the General Medical Council to provide personal medical services.
HIS - Health Informatics Service
A shared service providing core information management and technical skills across a local health community.
ICT - Information and Communications Technology
LAN - Local Area Network
LSP - Local Service Provider
Responsible for making sure the new systems and services delivered through the NPfIT meet local requirements and are implemented efficiently.
LPfIT - NHS London Programme for IT
N3
New fast, broadband communications network for the NHS. N3 is delivered by BT and has replaced the legacy NHS network, NHSnet.
N3SP - N3 Service Provider
BT is the N3SP. It was appointed by NHS Connecting for Health to manage the rollout of N3. N3 is a highly complex project and several subcontractors with specific areas of expertise are being used to deliver it. It is the responsibility of the N3SP to bring together these different elements of the project into one complete network - delivering flexibility and best value for money.
NASP - National Application Service Provider
Groups of commercial suppliers who are contracted to deliver national services such as Choose and Book and the Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions.
NHS - National Health Service
NHS CFH - NHS Connecting for Health
Delivering the National Programme for IT to bring modern computer systems into the NHS. Also referred to as 'CFH'.
NHS CRS - NHS Care Records Service
This will be an electronic store of over 50 million health and care records which will be accessed by health professionals where and when they are needed. It will also give patients secure Internet access to their own health record.
NHS Direct
Nurse-led telephone advice and information service.
NHSnet
Legacy wide area network connecting NHS organisations managed for the NHS by BT and Cable and Wireless. The network was fully replaced by N3 in 2007.
NN4B - NHS Numbers for Babies
NPfIT - National Programme for IT
Responsible for procurement and delivery of the multi-billion pound investment in new information and technology systems to improve the NHS.
NSOC - BT's NHS Service Operations Centre
This joins together the Service Management and Operations teams currently supporting each BT Health Programme to create a single service organisation, dedicated to providing consistent, high quality, end-to-end services to BT's clients across its Health contracts.
PACS - Picture Archiving and Communication System
A system enabling images such as X-rays and scans to be stored and sent electronically so that doctors and other health professionals can access the information with the touch of a button.
PAS - Patient Administration System
Hospital-based computer systems for administration of patient's activity.
Patient Record
A record of a patient's care and treatment.
PCT - Primary Care Trust
Local NHS organisation responsible for the commissioning, administration and performance management of healthcare within a defined locality.
PDS - Patient Demographic Service
PDS is the national, electronic database holding the demographic details of all NHS patients in England. It enables a patient to be correctly identified by NHS staff quickly and accurately. Information on the PDS is held nationally on the Spine and accessed by authorised NHS staff through their organisation's local system.
Primary Care
Services provided by family doctors, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists and ophthalmic medical practitioners, together with district nurses and health visitors.
QMAS - Quality Management and Analysis subsystem
Quality Management and Analysis subsystem: To support the Quality and Outcomes Framework, NPfIT has commissioned BT to develop and implement a new IT system called the Quality Management and Analysis Subsystem. It will provide reporting, forecasting and payment information for improving services within the Quality and Outcomes Framework.
Remote working
Using remote access technology to work in different locations and on the move.
Secondary care
Specialist care, provided from a hospital in support of the Primary Care team (e.g. surgery or specialist medical services). Also exists in other settings (e.g. in mental health and community settings).
SHA - Strategic Health Authority
The headquarters of the local NHS. Their role is to make sure that the health of local people is maintained and improved and that they have access to health services when they need them.
Spine
BT is building the national database and transactional messaging service for the NHS - known as the Spine, a secure national database of key information about patients' healthcare. Spine is much more than a database. It is also a powerful messaging system that underpins many new services being rolled out by the NPfIT such as the electronic transmission of prescriptions and Choose and Book.
Tertiary Care
Complex or specialist care that is provided in Tertiary Care centres (usually regional or national centres of excellence).
TMS - Transaction Messaging Service
TMS is the Spine's message handling application. It allows clinical messages from NHS Care Records Service users to be securely routed to the requested services. The TMS also manages responses to service requests.
Vocera
Solution that operates over a BT wireless local area network and enables users to speak to each other instantly anywhere in the hospital using a voice-controlled, wearable badge weighing less than two ounces.
VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol
WAN - Wide Area Network
WiFi - Wireless Fidelity Wireless Ethernet
