tQuest has been in place since 2015 and allows practices to electronically request diagnostics through your EMIS Web clinical system.

It is preferable that practices use tQuest to submit pathology requests as this reduces workload for both the practice and the Homerton.

Processes for raising pathology requests on the system may vary, subject to whether the patient is having the sample collected in the practice, by the requesting GP or later by a nurse or HCA, or whether they will attend the hospital or a community phlebotomy clinic run by the Homerton. 

It is important that requests are managed correctly on the system to ensure the electronic request can be picked up wherever the patient is having the sample collected and is accurately time and date stamped. In the event that a request has not been completed or finished correctly on tQuest and the patient subsequently attends a Homerton phlebotomy clinic, staff at the clinic may not be able to see the electronic request raised on tQuest and may have to process a paper request. This can result in additional work and a possibility that that result does not come back to the correct EMIS workflow at the practice.

The CCG have recently worked with staff from local practices and the Homerton to produce three user guides:

1.    Pathology Requesting – process to be followed by the clinician raising the request. Includes details on completing the request correctly depending on where and when the sample will be collected and the difference between clicking Save or Finish at the end of the process.
2.    Pathology Sample Collection – process to be followed by a member of practice staff who is collecting a sample in order to complete a saved request.
3.    Re-collecting a Completed Pathology Request – process to be followed by a member of practice staff who collecting or re-collecting a sample for a completed request (i.e. one where the requesting clinician has clicked Finish rather than Save).

The CCG are aware that internal processes relating to who collects the sample and/or prints the form may differ slightly from practice to practice. Please review the user guides and try to align your processes accordingly.

Training
Training of the tQuest system is available under the local GP IT Support Service. The CCG has requested that centralised training sessions are run following the circulation of the training guides mentioned above. However, should you wish to request a training session at any time in the future please contact nelcsu.gpittraining@nhs.net or speak to GP IT Facilitator, Raymond Berry.

Requesting new users
In addition to the localised user guides, we have also included a generic admin guide covering various aspects of tQuest user administration (please ignore references to Bart’s Health and replace with Homerton Hospital). Pages 3-5 include a process for adding and activating new users.

In the event that you add a new user to tQuest and this is not confirmed within 3 working days please chase by emailing the Clinical Information Systems Helpdesk at the Homerton.