Home PharmaBase - information for commissioners
PharmaBase is a web-based platform which helps community pharmacies provide services more effectively and makes it easier for commissioners to audit and manage these services.
Community pharmacists recognise the need to demonstrate the value of the services they provide in order to prevent decommissioning, and to support the development of new services; however there has not been an easy method of collecting and collating such data. PharmaBase has been developed by community pharmacy to fill this identified gap and to allow community pharmacy to take responsibility for building its own evidence base.
What does PharmaBase do?
PharmaBase supports pharmacy contractors and their staff to deliver services more efficiently via a web based platform. It supports pharmacy contractors to:
1) Manage the provision of the New Medicine Service (NMS) in their pharmacy and contribute to developing the evidence base for this service;
2) Track and record their compliance with NHS pharmacy contract requirements (the PSNC Contract Workbook);
3) Complete a pre-visit questionnaire before the PCT’s contract monitoring visit (Community Pharmacy Assurance Framework);
4) Make records for a range of Enhanced services consultations and submit claims for payment to the service commissioner. Availalbe modules are:
- Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC)
- Supervised consumption service
- Needle & Syringe Programme (NSP)
- Stop smoking service
- NRT voucher service
- End of month declaration module – a generic module which can be used by commissioners to collect, on a monthly basis, specific data from pharmacies related to local services
All pharmacy contractors have been given access to PharmaBase. This allows them to use the Contract Workbook/CPAF and NMS modules. Where a commissioner agrees to use PharmaBase to manage any of the Enhanced services supported by the platform, contractors will be given access to the relevant modules.
Options for commissioners
There are two options for use of PharmaBase by commissioners:
Option 1 - use the base functionality for managing Enhanced services and the Contract Workbook. For the Enhanced services, this allows pharmacy contractors to make service records and automatically create PDF payment claims and audit reports which can be forwarded to the commissioner. Examples of the payment claims and audit reports are available via the links below. It also allows the creation of a PDF CPAF pre-visit questionnaire which can be forwarded to the commissioner.
Option 2 - use the base functionality for managing Enhanced services and the Contract Workbook. This allows pharmacy contractors to make service records and create payment claims and audit reports. Consolidated payment claims and audit reports for all contractors in the area can then be provided to the commissioner in an electronic format that suits the needs of the commissioner. A consolidated CPAF report will also be created to support contract monitoring.
Charges for the use of PharmaBase
Use of Option 1 by commissioners is free of charge. The charges for Option 2 per pharmacy per year are available in three packages:
| Service Module |
£120 + VAT Full Service Package |
£70 + VAT Any TWO services |
£45 + VAT Any ONE service |
|
Contract Workbook/CPAF |
√ |
? |
? |
|
EHC |
√ |
? |
? |
|
Supervised consumption |
√ |
? |
? |
|
Needle & Syringe Programme |
√ |
? |
? |
|
Stop smoking |
√ |
? |
? |
|
NRT voucher |
√ |
? |
? |
The fees are guaranteed to remain the same until January 2014.
The benefits to commissioners
PharmaBase can support commissioners to manage community pharmacy services - both the national contract and locally commissioned services. The range of PharmaBase functionality used by a commissioner will determine the efficiencies that can be achieved, but all commissioners should be able to reduce the time and costs of collating and processing data and payment claims for locally commissioned services supported by PharmaBase.
Benefits of using the Contract Workbook module (Option 1):
- Consistent assessment of pharmacy contractors' compliance with contractual requirements;
- Guidance and support materials for pharmacy contractors embedded within the Contract Workbook module assist pharmacies to deliver better services to patients;
- Consistent and clear reporting to the commissioner via the CPAF pre-visit questionnaire; no more illegible hand written returns from pharmacies;
- Supports commissioner assessment of pharmacies prior to inspection visits, allowing shorter visits; and
- Supports commissioners to undertake a prioritised programme of inspection visits, potentially allowing the total number of inspections to be reduced.
Benefits of using Enhanced service modules (Option 1):
- Consistent and clear reporting of service data to the commissioner; the requirement for pharmacies to complete mandatory fields within the module can increase the quality of data received by the commissioner compared with paper based systems;
- Consistent and clear payment claims to the commissioner; no more illegible hand written returns from pharmacies;
- Removes the risk of pharmacy contractors incorrectly calculating payment claims; and
- Easier processing of payment claims and auditing of services, potentially delivering administrative time savings.
Benefits of using the Contract Workbook module (Option 2):
- As above, but consolidated report for all pharmacies allows rapid assessment of all pharmacies and easier prioritisation of inspection visits.
Additional benefits of using the Enhanced service modules (Option 2):
- Removes administrative time spent collating payment claims and service data for local pharmacies;
- Consolidated data can be easily imported into local management and finance systems, saving time and reducing the risk of transcription errors.
Downloads
Download a PowerPoint presentation about PharmaBase for commissioners
Download examples of the audit reports and payment claims created by PharmaBase:
Supervised consumption audit report
Supervised consumption payment claim
Contact us
To discuss use of PharmaBase, please contact contact Neil Slater 07765 898339 or neil.slater@healthinfoexchange.org.uk.
PharmaBase is provided by Health Information Exchange Ltd. Registered in England and Wales; Company number 7343096. Registered Office: Da Vinci House, Basing View, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 4EQ