Asking for access

As a professional, you may sometimes need to ask for access to view a patient's records.

For example, if you have discharged a patient, or a patient has stopped sharing their record, you may wish to ask for access to that record again. Alternatively, you may be able to ask for access to a patient who has a PKB record attached to an organisation you are a part of, but is not yet attached to your team.

How do I ask for access to a patient record?

Search for the patient, click 'Add to my team’' and select the options to document the permissions & consent you have to access the record.

Which option should I select when asking for access?

If the patient is present with you in clinic, and they consent to you accessing their records, then you should select the first option of 'I want to ask the patient for permission (start consent process).'

If the patient is not present but you have already obtained consent (whether explicit or implicit) then select the second option of 'Our team already has permission.' You will be asked to specify how you have permission (such as a referral or court order).

In an emergency situation where you do not have consent and the patient is unable to consent, you may decide to select the third option of 'I need emergency access for the patient's safety' which is also known as 'Break the glass'. Diagnoses (Conditions), Medications and Appointments are not currently visible to professionals after using 'Break the glass'.

The patient and any carers will be notified by email regardless of which option a professional chooses. The organisation’s Privacy Officer will also be notified when any professional uses ‘Break the Glass.

What is Break The Glass?

Break The Glass (BTG) allows a professional to see a patient's record without consent. This is for emergency situations when the patient lacks the capacity to consent and the professional's clinical judgement is that the patient's safety requires the professional to see the record.

The Break The Glass feature is for use by professionals that are part an organisation that has decryption rights to open the record. The decryption rights are there either because another team at the organisation is treating the patient, or the organisation is part of an organisation network, sharing decryption private keys across the network.

The organisation's privacy officer receives a report of all instances of BTG.

How does a coordinator invite others to access the record?

Coordinators can invite carers and professionals to access a patient's record on behalf of the patient. This is beneficial for patients who do not have the capacity to manage the sharing of their record e.g. children or adults with dementia.

The instructions below are for manually inviting the patient but the coordinator can also invite multiple carers to patients' records simultaneously using the set up multiple patient records feature.

Click the radio button next to the patients name to select them. Click either 'Add carer', 'Add professional' or 'Assign teams'. Fill in the form and they will then be sent an invitation to the patients account.

Alternatively if you are adding an affiliated team then on that page you will be given a list of the available teams. Check the box next to the teams which you would like to assign to and then click 'Assign'.

How do professionals invite other professionals to access the record?

You can still give individual professionals access to patient’s record as a non-institutional professional to help manage their care.

Within the patient’s record, Click 'Sharing' then 'Add an individual'

The ‘Add an individual’ button

How can I invite an affiliated team to a patient record?

Navigate to the patient's sharing section and click 'Add team' if you are a professional or 'Assign team' as a coordinator.