Improving the way we work with NHS Choices (part 2)

Oh gosh, I promised you Part 2 of this post after just a few days - but it's been a few weeks. Where does the time go?

In my last post I talked about how we are working to make the exchange of stories and responses with NHS Choices more reliable.

In this post I want to mention the new "smart alerts" we have added to Patient Opinion, which mean you can be alerted (if you want) when we import a story or response from NHS Choices.

To be alerted, go to the saved things page in your subscription, and create an alert in the usual way. Then make sure to add the new NHS Choices import triggers to your alert.

Your alert might start off looking like this:

After you click on "available triggers" and add the NHS Choices triggers your alert should end up looking like this:

What will happen then? If we import a story or a response from NHS Choices within the scope of your alert (in this case, about Stepping Hill Hospital), we'll let you know.

If you change your mind, you just remove the triggers you added.

Some caveats

There are a couple of caveats to bear in mind.

First, your alert will only work if it relates to a location which is recognised on NHS Choices. This normally means that alerts about NHS trusts and hospitals are OK, but specific departments within a hospital won't work.

This is because when we import the story or response, we can see the location but we don't get department information.

Second, the NHS Choices triggers are available in all our subscriptions, but not in our free registration level.

So that's it - quick, easy and, we hope, helpful!

By the way, we have more "smart alerts" coming soon.