An “obsolete” SystmOne unit is one that has been formally taken offline and removed from active use. If your service is ending or moving away from SystmOne, it is critical to close your unit properly rather than simply leaving it running unaccessed. This process helps:

• Protect patient data
• Stop new information arriving at the unused unit
• Meet your contractual and data protection obligations

Leaving a unit active after your service has ended is not safe.  Referrals, results, electronic messages, mark-in-error requests, will still be delivered to the unit even if no one is logging in to check for these. The wider system will also generate various automated Tasks that require action. This can create a clinical risk and lead to unanswered messages, unprocessed documents and delays and risks to patient care. It can also complicate reporting and cause inaccuracies in contract monitoring.

Preparing to make a unit obsolete

Attached below is the TPP document on making a SystmOne unit obsolete; which should be followed. We have also included notes and lessons learned from the ICB Clinical Systems team for other services to benefit from.

Privacy Alert tasks

If Privacy Alerts and warnings have not been cleared by your service Privacy Officer(s) the system will continue to generate tasks highlighting these need attention. Ensure your Privacy Officer(s) has investigated and cleared any alerts/warning as part of ceasing care.

Automated Tasks

To stop the unit from receiving Tasks from other organisations whilst preparing the unit it is advisable to disable automated tasks at the beginning of the process, disable all receiving tasks options by navigating to Setup > Users and Policy > Organisation preferences > Tasks > Receiving Tasks > Untick all options 

Potential hidden patients 

Due to issue with registration processes that may have been adopted during the time the unit was in use there may be several patients that are active in the unit but do not appear on an active patient report. Once all work has been completed to remove patients showing on the reports complete the following process. Navigate to Reporting > Miscellaneous Reports > Ad Hoc Patient List > Random. Select a number of patients to search for e.g. 20 and click ok this will provide either a message stating that there are not that number of patients so change the number in the search to match or if a list is provided there may be more patients so increase the number until you are given an exact figure to search with. Using the list create a task for all patients to remove them from the unit.