Ardens has created a variety of resources to assist with identifying patients who may have Osteoporosis, and to support their ongoing management once diagnosed. 

Recording Information on the Management of Osteoporosis Patients

The Ardens Osteoporosis clinical template has been designed to standardise consultations, ensuring clinicians are following the latest national guidelines and recording accurate coding of data. 

To locate the template, access the relevant patient record. Open a new consultation and select the Run Template option (if not in consultations, click on the Add button on the EMIS ribbon, followed by Data Using Template option).

This will open the Template Picker screen. If you have accessed any templates before, these will display to the left of the screen. Search for the template by typing “Osteoporosis” in the search box.

This will return the Osteoporosis (Ardens) template (alternatively select the Ardens > Chronic disease templates folder to the right of the screen).

All the Ardens Chronic Disease Templates follow the latest NICE guidance and best practice information. They include a QOF page for capturing QOF requirements and Review pages to complete a structured review.

Any information displayed in red relates to payment purposes such as QOF, Network Contract DES or local payment. Please note - if the information is relevant for the current financial year, you do not need to duplicate this information. 

The Review pages includes guidance on who is considered high-risk and therefore warrant assessment, as well as areas to record information around lifestyle, observations and the ability to record details of the examination on a clinical diagram. 

The Investigation and fracture risk page gives links to NICE guidance as well as links to QFracture and FRAX Tool websites to aid with calculating the 10 year fragility risk score.

The Review and Recall page enables you to code that you have completed an osteoporosis review and to add a follow up date to the patients diary for those requiring a follow up assessment, linking in with the Ardens Diary Recall System.

The template contains many helpful links and information including links to NICE guidance within the Management page and leaflets for your patients within the Resources page.

Please note – for patients presenting with multiple long term conditions, you may wish to use the Ardens Multi-Morbidity templates. 

Ardens Osteoporosis Data Quality Alerts

The Ardens resources includes Data Quality Alerts to alert practice staff in real time of incorrect coding or missing QOF requirements. These will ensure that you are entering accurate data to include your Osteoporosis patients on the QOF register, whilst also flagging potential diagnosis:

Ardens Osteoporosis Clinical Safety Alerts

The Ardens resources includes Clinical Safety Alerts to flag in real-time important MHRA drug safety and NICE guidance information that maybe missed. The alerts are triggered on certain activity in the patient record e.g. entering a particular code or prescribing specific drugs. The following Osteoporosis alert will display when issuing Denosumab, if the patient has not had certain tests within the previous 4 weeks.

Ardens Osteoporosis Searches

Ardens Case Finders searches support practices to improve data quality and ensure QOF payments are correctly calculated for your Osteoporosis patients.  

The searches are reporting on patients that fulfil certain criteria which indicates the patient probably should be included in the Osteoporosis QOF register but are not recorded with the correct diagnostic code.

If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk