What are organisation networks?

Organisation networks allow multiple PKB ‘organisations’ to be joined with one another to share data. For example a group of providers in a city or region may agree to work together to increase data sharing to raise safety, lower costs and provide better care for patients.

What makes up an organisation network?

The hierarchy of PKB is quite simple. Professionals, patients and carers can be grouped to make teams (this could be a specific hospital department for example). Teams can be grouped to make organisations. Organisations can then be grouped to make an organisation network.

What are the benefits of an organisation network?

This feature is critical for regions using PKB as a patient-controlled health information exchange. The main benefit of an organisation network is to allow teams within the network to have access to patient’s records as patients move between organisations within the same area. Each team must still get or document consent before they access the data.

How do I set up an organisation network?

To set up a network, please contact us.

For further details on organisation networks, please click here.

Affiliate teams

What is an affiliate team?

An affiliate team is a team that is linked to another team within a different organisation. This allows the two teams to send one another patients that both teams are caring for.

How do I set up an affiliate team?

To set up an affiliate team, please contact us.

Can an affiliate team see all patients in their linked team?

No. An affiliate team can only see patients that the linked team have given them access to.

How do I give an affiliate team access to a patient?

As a coordinator, log in and search for the patient. Click the radio button to the left of their name to select them and click 'Assign teams'. You can then choose the relevant team.

What is the difference between an organisation network and an affiliate team?

An organisation network is grouping together multiple organisations whereas an affiliate team is grouping teams who sit in different organisations.

Organisation networks allow all teams within those organisations to access patients that sit in teams across the network, where as affiliate team only allows the specific teams linked to access each others patients. An affiliate team cannot see all patients that sit in the linked team - they have to be given access to these patients on an individual patient.

Organisation networks are useful when the organisations are in geographical proximity to one another. For example, organisations that are within a CCG might decide to become a network, or GP practices that are in the same GP federation.

Affiliate teams are normally used when the teams share a speciality. For example, if a hospital department is treating a patient and has to refer them to a specialist somewhere else in the country the two hospital teams could become affiliate (so they can both access and add data to the record) even though they are geographically far away from one another.