Registration Validation - Who needs it and why
The Registration Validation software is relevant for current Vision practices who are not running Registration Links and who:
- have converted from VAMP Medical to Vision (it may also be needed for other practices who did not undergo a full validation of registration details before converting to Vision);
- were not running Registration Links (VAMP Medical) at the time of conversion;
- plan soon to switch on Registration Links in Vision and exchange data electronically with the TP.
Note - TP refers to Trading Partner, ie the Health Authority (HA) or Health Board (HB) to which your practice is linked electronically. Where HA has been used in the text, this also implies HA, HB, or CSA (NI).
One of the preliminary requirements of Registration Links is validation - checking that the format of patients' addresses and other registration details matches the TP requirements, such as omitting punctuation at line ends, and standardising spelling of the towns and counties. The databases at the TP and practice must match (database reconciliation) before any registration data is exchanged electronically.
When practices convert their data to Vision, the validation of addresses, postcodes, CHI and NHS numbers, and rural mileages, was not detailed enough at that stage to meet TP regulations for the TP/GP Link Project.
This Registration Validation software will print a list of incorrect data patient by patient, so that each error can be corrected. Amendments are conveniently carried out from the Address Maintenance screen. Some overall changes of address format can be made from three further address screens.
Who needs to validate and why
You do not need to carry out validation:
- If you are already linked for Registration to your Health Board.
- Your practice data has been converted to Vision, unless tidying up is required.
You do need to carry out validation if:
- Your practice is currently not linked for registration to your HB, but intends to switch to Partners soon. Validation in this case must be done before switching on Partners to check the registration data is in an acceptable format and consistent. By running various reports that highlight registration data errors, these errors can be corrected in Registration until the reports can be run error-free.
