About the mortuary

When you mark a patient as deceased:

  • They are discharged from all other visits and admitted to the mortuary

  • They gain the patient class 'M' or 'Mortuary'

  • The patient banner changes to grey

  • DECEASED appears under the patient's name

Nervecentre does some things automatically when you mark a patient as deceased, or not deceased.

When a patient is marked as deceased, Nervecentre automatically cancels various things. These are cancelled asynchronously. There might be a delay in completing all cancellations.

The table below lists what Nervecentre does when a patient is marked as deceased.

Investigations

Nervecentre cancels all investigations that are on order.

PDS

Nervecentre decouples the patient from PDS Personal Demographic Service, an NHS system. The PDS helps healthcare professionals to identify patients and match them to their health records. It also allows them to contact and communicate with patients..

Preadmissions

Nervecentre cancels all preadmissions.

Prescriptions sent by EPS

Nervecentre adds the live requests to EPS Electronic Prescription Service. An NHS service only available in England.This service allows prescribers to send prescriptions to community pharmacies. The pharmacies can dispense medications to patients. to a worklist. You can view this worklist from  Back office > Worklists. A user must manually cancel the requests.

Outpatient activities

Nervecentre cancels all appointments and referrals.

Visits

Nervecentre adds an item to a worklist so users know the patient died during their admission. You can view this worklist from  Back office > Worklists.

Letters

Nervecentre blocks sending letters to deceased patients, and to a patient's correspondence addresses. This applies to all letter delivery methods, including SMS.

Letters to GPs and other addresses are still sent.

When a patient is marked as deceased, Nervecentre automatically cancels various things. These are recorded to allow them to be undone if the patient is subsequently marked as not deceased.

The table below lists what Nervecentre does when a patient is marked as not deceased.

Investigations

No change.

You can view a patient's cancelled orders from Patient Detail >Investigations >

Read more about viewing orders

PDS

Nervecentre adds the patient to a worklist. You can view this worklist from  Back office > Worklists.

Preadmissions

Nervecentre reopens preadmissions if they are not in the past.

Prescriptions sent by EPS

No change.

Outpatient activities

Nervecentre rebooks appointments.

Visits

No change.

Letters

Letters can now be sent to the patient and their correspondence addresses.

You can print and send previous letters that were blocked.

Read more about printing blocked letters

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