What do the Coloured Annual Review Stages mean?

In the demographics box on the patient record, a coloured icon will indicate the patient's current stage in their annual review. 

Depending on your practice setup, you may see a square, a triangle, a circle, or a combination of all three icons. There's no significance to the different shapes - its just to give practices the option to use a shape that's not already in use, or keep all three to make it stand out.

AR Blue - Pending

Patient will be invited later in the QOF year

This doesn't change until an invite has been sent and coded. It doesn't change automatically when their birth month is reached.

AR Red - Awaiting Response 

Patient has been invited but not yet responded to invite

This carries over from the previous QOF year. E.g. if a patient was invited in the previous QOF year, but never responded, they will stay Red. This is to make clear they've not been reviewed and care should be taking when reviewing / re-authorising their medication.

AR Pink - In Progress

Patient has been invited for a review and the patient has responded

Normally this is because a review appointment is booked but it also could be because the patient has completed questionnaires such as an Asthma Control Questionnaire.

It's not possible to be 100% certain whether an appointment is for an annual review so the system will look try to work it out, e.g. if an appointment has been booked using the Appointment Booking protocol.

If the appointment is not for the annual review, or gets cancelled, of DNA'd, the patient will go back to their previous colour, i.e. Red if invited, Blue if not invited.

AR Green - Completed

Patient's review(s) are all completed for this QOF year

For each review, the system looks at different things to determine whether a review has been complete. For example, Asthma looks for Asthma annual review code OR QOF being achieved. It is possible that an asthma annual review has been coded without QOF being achieved, e.g. if a care plan has not been generated and coded. But the system marks it as done as the issue is a coding one, rather than the patient needing to come back in.

On the recall overview, each review alert can show you what criteria is used to assess whether its completed or not. Just click on the drop down arrow next to the alert for more information.

Its not unusual to have some QOF alerts outstanding when a patient is showing as Green. For example, a patient may have had a Diabetic review, but their HbA1c may be over target, so that indicator is not achieved. If your system is configured to use 'End of Financial Year' figures for QOF alerts (recommended), the medication indicators such as CHD005 won't show as green on the QOF timeline until the relevant medications have been issued after October of the QOF year.

AR Amber - Work still to do 

Patient has had part of their review but still some work to do

When any annual review code is added, after an annual review invite, the system won't send further AR invites in the existing QOF year. This is because the system is built around the premise of inviting patients once, to have all their reviews completed. Suppose a patient needs a cardiovascular review with a HCA, and a respiratory review with a nurse. If they see the HCA and the HCA codes the review, but they don't book to see the respiratory nurse, they would show as Amber.

There is a folder in clinical reporting called "Amber" that shows patients in this category and further invites that could be sent to them.

AR Aqua - Requires Visit 

Patient requires home visit for annual review

Possible reasons for being included in this status:

• Coded as in a care home

• Coded as housebound (can be overridden by adding code "no longer housebound" XaXCd)

• Home visit has been requested by the patient in the current QOF year (there is an option on the RED pop up to request a visit. Patients are first asked to confirm they are unable to leave the house before this is added)

AR Black - Excluded / Declined

Patient is excluded from Annual Reviews

This may be due to being end of life, the patient has declined to have a review this QOF year or a child who is in annual review register but wouldn't normally be reviewed in primary care, e.g. a child with diabetes