The Merlin - Version 85 release contains multiple improvements, notable changes include - Repeat Prescriptions – enhancements to how you can create a repeat prescription. We have also improved the Pharmacy Home Delivery functionality- including; a new feature that enhances the communication between the clinicians and the pharmacy, streamlines the prescription order process. Others include enhancements to the visibility and identification of rejected orders, cancelled orders, prescription durations, and further changes to the Code Entry. 

There are also further improvements such as - Unavailability drop-down reasons list, adding notes to contact numbers and more, please read the full release notes to understand all the details relating to these changes.

We have also fixed quite a few bugs – further improving usability, plus added security features.

Improvements

We're excited to announce the following new features:

 

1) Repeat prescriptions – changes to how you create a repeat prescription.

What has changed? We have made some changes to the repeat prescription process in the ‘Add Treatment’ screen and some minor changes to the ‘Code Maintenance’ screens.
Why have we made these changes?
The changes we are delivering in this release lay the foundations for the full functionality coming soon – will be a new optional “Advanced Prescriptions” feature.  This new “Advanced Prescriptions” feature will deliver a revised workflow providing improved efficiency when creating and dispensing prescriptions, and further support you to comply with the RCVS ‘Under Care’ regulations.

The current changes include:

Add Treatment ScreenYou will now see 3 radio buttons in this screen, below is a description of what each one does:

• MWI Pharmacy button - This will only be displayed if you have this enabled and are using the existing MWI Pharmacy functionality.
• Dispense from button - Selecting the “Dispense from” button enables you to add treatment items as per normal (dispensing an item from a selected stock center and adding it to the draft treatment items), however you will no longer see the pop-up window asking if you want to create a Repeat Prescription. You would now need to use the Prescription button to do this (detailed below)
• Prescription button - Will take you to the ‘Create Repeat Prescription’ screen using the existing functionality.
  
  

Code Entry Changes -New Prescription tab in code entry

These changes support the Advanced Prescriptions functionality that is due in a future release. Only the ‘Allow Prescriptions’ functionality will be available to use currently.  

• Allow Prescription – this has replaced the “Repeat Prescription” button and has been moved to the new Prescriptions tab – note, most of the new attributes of the tab are not yet active. When enabled this allows a repeat prescription to be created for that item, the ‘Allow Prescription’ flag also acts as a filter when searching for items to create a prescription.  

The following attributes will also appear in the "Prescriptions" tab in code entry, for stock items only, but the functionality is not available yet.  

• Calculate Ingredient Dosage - this will use the predefined label instruction default fields and will help calculate quantities when dispensing in Advanced Prescriptions mode.

• Require Secondary Alternative Prescription – this will prompt users to create a secondary alternative prescription with the same active ingredients when creating a prescription for the item (only in Advanced mode).  

• Allow as Written Prescription - this will allow users to dispense the item as a Written Prescription. 

• Dispense by Prescription - this will prompt users to create a prescription for the item when using the "Dispense from" option in the Add Treatment screen (only in Advanced mode). 

• Active Ingredient Grid - this data entry grid will enable users to add each of the active ingredients for the item including the "Strength Measure" (unit) and "Dosage Measure" (unit).    

Administration/Settings/Treatment - you will now see 3 Prescription Modes:

• Basic mode - existing functionality - and you should continue to use this.
• Advanced – using the new advanced prescription functionality - this is not yet fully delivered, please do not use.
• Advanced View Basic mode – -using the new advanced prescriptions functionality but retaining the ability to view old repeat prescriptions (for when they may still be active) - this is not yet fully delivered, please do not use.
  
  

2) Pharmacy home delivery enhancements

We have an in-house pharmacy that fulfils orders for practices via our Home Delivery offering. 
When orders are placed and sent, the items are added to patient's treatment history and charged to client’s account. 

 

A new feature that enhances the communication between the clinicians and the pharmacy

 

        What has changed?

• Clinicians will now receive notifications when their submitted pharmacy orders are  rejected by pharmacy.
• These notifications will be sent to a pre-configured clinician messaging group.
• Each notification includes a clear subject and body, providing essential information about the rejected order.
  
  Why have we made these changes?
  In order to streamline the prescription order process.

 

An update that improves the visibility and identification of rejected orders in Merlin.

We have an in-house pharmacy that fulfils orders for practices via our Home Delivery offering. When orders are placed and sent, the items are added to patient's treatment history and charged to client’s account.

What has changed?

In the Prescriptions List and deliveries list:

• Rejected orders will be clearly flagged in the Prescriptions List screen. The Status column will display "REJECTED" for rejected orders
• A new status icon (exclamation-triangle) will be displayed, with the triangle coloured in red.
• The tooltip for the status icon will read "Rejected by Pharmacy."
• Right-click options, such as "Cancel," will be disabled for rejected orders.

Why have we made these changes?
This enhancement aims to streamline the order review process and enable clinicians to quickly recognize and address rejected orders, ensuring efficient remedial actions.

Enhancements to the visibility and identification of cancelled orders in Merlin. 

 

What has changed?

• Cancelled orders will be clearly flagged in the Prescriptions List screen and deliveries list.
• The Status column will display "Cancelled" for cancelled orders.
• A new status icon (exclamation-circle) will be displayed, with the circle colored in blue.
• The tooltip for the status icon will read "Cancelled by Practice."

Why have we made these changes?
This improvement aims to streamline the order review process and enable clinicians to quickly identify and take appropriate actions for orders cancelled by practices.

Duration changes

What has changed?

• You will also see a new column titled "Duration". This has been added to the Prescriptions List screen, displaying the duration for each prescription item.

• This column will show the duration information set during the ordering process on the MWI Pharmacy popup screen.
• The "Duration" column has also been added to the Delivery List screen, providing visibility into prescription durations for pending deliveries.

 

3) Reception - International phone number Support

 

What has changed?

This new capability provides the ability for international numbers to be provided by a client and captured in the correct format.  It can also validate existing numbers that have previously been captured provided they are already in an international format.  If an international number is captured, it will then be presented with the correct international format across reports and for use with telephony and/or SMS.

Why have we made these changes?
To assist in the management of client communications.

4) Addition of notes to contact numbers

What has changed?

This new capability enables additional notes to be captured against specific phone numbers

Why have we made these changes?

Merlin contacts sometimes have multiple phone numbers recorded against them, so this will help to identify which is the relevant contact number to use.  Any notes will then be available for reporting in 'Right to Access' GDPR report.

5) Renaming of titles in the vaccinations area in the patient details

What has changed?

New titles have been added to the Patient Details screen, these include - Anti Parasitic’ which is the new title for flea and worm treatments and all other details on the page now fall under the title ‘Other information’.

Why have we made these changes?
To make it clearer and more relevant

6) Merlin diary - Unavailability reasons dropdown list

What have we made these changes?

This change introduces a defined dropdown list of unavailability reasons instead of adding free-text, which will improve the management of the unavailability reasons, enabling streamlined reporting and filtering. 

What has changed?

• Users will select a timeslot (able to select multiple slots using Ctrl key), right click and select "Unavailable". 
• A window will pop up with a drop-down list and the user will have to select a reason from the list.  
• If that reason has been configured to require an additional free-text field, then the user will need to enter at least 1 character in that field before clicking "Ok".  

As before, the reason selected will be displayed in the diary timeslot and the colour will indicate that timeslot is unavailable.   

How can I enable this?

• This new feature is enabled for each site from the Administration/Settings/Diary screen using the “Enable Unavailability Reason Type” flag.  
• The list of reasons available for users to select is managed from the Administration/Appointments/Unavailability Reasons screen.  
• From this screen, as well as creating, editing and deleting values, it is possible to set a requirement for a free-text explanation to accompany the dropdown value selected if desired, e.g. 

 

We have also fixed..

 

• Clean up Species Breed by removing three columns which are not used (Minimum Weight, Maximum Weight & Image).
• Provision of a more informative error message for a user if a file/document cannot be accessed from within Merlin when a resource no-longer exists.
• Resolution of an issue such that a weight entry was erroneously inserted, when Modifying Patient Details
• We have resolved an issue where it was possible to use a negative cancellation values for ASN items
• Selecting a breed via Administration > Patients > Breeds > Breeds by species, no longer allows the user to input free text.
• When setting a schedule time in the Price Import Scheduler, the user now must select from a dropdown. This fixes an issue where the user could type in a time which would cause an error.
• When generating a Variance Report, if there is no data that can populate the report, an empty template is generated rather than a blank page.
• We have resolved an issue where our integration with Vetstoria would fail when attempting to book in a slot which has a Cancelled Appointment in it.
• Fixes an issue with Sales Report - Average Transaction Value - By Item/Invoice Date - such that CSV files now return values
• We have resolved an issue with our labs integration where updates were being requested multiple times unnecessarily.
• We have updated the error message seen when deleting a document linked to lab result in the document screen and selecting remove. The error message is now more user friendly.
• Merge fields in blank templates are now listed alphabetically, to improve the user experience in selecting the correct fields data
• Fields in the SMS Template Editor are now listed alphabetically, to improve the user experience in selecting the correct fields.
• We have fixed an issue that when appointments created using the "Send To > Repeat Prescriptions List" menu option were having their duration set to 10, even though these appointments do not have start and end times. These appointments now have a duration of 0, which matches the behaviour from before version 2.3.83.
• Further security enhancements have been implemented.