Service desk guide

This guide provides service desk teams with instructions on managing queries related to Concentric, including access, technical, and data quality issues that may arise.

In many cases, service desk individuals will also be admin users of Concentric, enabling them to manage user accounts within the service desk. Standard processes within the admin application, such as creating and managing users, and viewing usage metrics, are covered in our admin application guide and are not duplicated here.

Requests from clinicians account for the vast majority of Concentric-related service desk requests, with login issues and account changes being the most common. Typically, these can be resolved quickly and simply by the service desk without the need for Concentric’s input.

Login difficulties

The most common Concentric-related query service desks receive is clinicians reporting that they are unable to log in. There are a few different causes:

Incorrect login flow

With the Concentric login page offering different login options, a common issue arises from using the incorrect login method for the organisation. Clinicians generally should use Single Sign-On (SSO) - ‘Log in with Microsoft’ or ‘Log in with NHSmail’ - as per their getting started guide. However, many attempt to log in using the ‘Concentric login’ flow (i.e. by entering their credentials in the ‘email address’ and ‘password’ fields below), then report an issue. Easily resolved by directing to the correct login flow 🙂.

No Concentric account for that email address

If a user is using their SSO credentials but receiving an error message stating they need to be given access, it means that there is no Concentric account associated with that email address.

Unlike some other systems, Concentric requires a specific Concentric account to be set up for the user, even if the organisation’s single sign-on (SSO) mechanism is being used. The process for creating an account is addressed in the managing users section of the admin guide.

An email address typo on a Concentric account will also result in this error being displayed. For this reason, we recommend searching for the clinician’s name in the admin application if you suspect that an account for the clinician may already exist.

Email address typo or change of email address

If there is a Concentric account for the user, but it’s linked to the incorrect email address – for example, due to a typo or following a change of email address – then they will not be able to log in, and a request needs to be sent to Concentric to change the email address on the account.

A request is sent by clicking the ‘Contact Support’ link in the edit user form and adding the new email address to the template email. These requests are usually actioned within one working day, and we automatically notify the clinician when the change has been made.

Existing account elsewhere and requesting it to be transferred

From a service desk and account management perspective, it is irrelevant whether a user has another Concentric account (active or disabled) for a different organisation, even when using a portable email address such as NHSmail. When a clinician moves organisations, their new organisation needs to set them up with an account within Concentric, and their old organisation should disable their account; these actions do not need to be done in sequence.

Other login issues

There are a few rarer cases that occasionally arise, for example, a message stating that the account is already linked to another SSO account. For issues not covered in this guide, please email support@concentric.health, and we’ll be happy to support. To accelerate issue resolution, please include a screenshot of the error message seen.

Getting started and product queries

Clinicians will occasionally contact the service desk for support with getting started with Concentric or for product-related queries. In most cases, these can be answered by reading the organisation’s getting started and support page, watching the video guide, and exploring the linked resources from that page. In scenarios where the answer is not found, please email support@concentric.health for guidance.

Submitting a content request

Concentric provides and manages content for consent templates across thousands of procedures and treatments. We have a process for managing requests from clinicians for additions and modifications to the available template library. For example, requests to add new templates, change the risks mentioned, or add a resource or leaflet. You can read more details about this process on our ontology requests process page.

Due to the triage our clinical team performs for content requests, and the different approval processes followed for organisation-specific changes, clinicians should be directed to submit their content requests via the in-application’ content request’ link. This link is within the account menu.

Organisations have visibility of open content requests and their status via our help centre. To see these, a Zendesk account for Concentric is required. For details on how to set up an account and receive our Zendesk help centre user guide, please email content@concentric.health. To add further detail to an existing request, or to notify us that a clinician has contacted you requesting an update, please log in to the help centre and add a message on the relevant ticket.

User feedback and feature requests

Clinicians should be directed to submit product-related feedback and feature requests via the in-application ‘Give feedback’ link within the account menu. We will liaise directly with the clinician, as appropriate.

Admin users

Occasionally, a service desk request will relate to the Concentric admin application, either for support assigning new admin users or troubleshooting issues with multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Our managing admin access page outlines the principles of who should have admin access and the process for creating an admin account. Logging in to the admin application requires MFA, via a process outlined in the admin application guide. As per these guides, to create an admin account or assist a user who has lost access to a functioning MFA profile for the admin application, please contact us at support@concentric.health.

Integration and software issues

There are a few issues that can arise relating to the integration and software. Most commonly, these issues relate to an integration problem between Concentric and the healthcare organisation. Rarely, there is an issue with the Concentric application itself, leading to either planned or unplanned downtime.

Concentric downtime

If clinicians report that they are unable to access Concentric or receive an error when trying to complete any action within the application, Concentric is likely experiencing a period of downtime. In most cases, the issue will already be known to us, and we will be providing regular updates on our status page. If there appears to be Concentric downtime, but there is nothing reported on our status page:

• Within working hours: email support@concentric.health
• Out-of-hours: call the Concentric emergency technical support number (this number is shared with the organisation during deployment, and should be available to the service desk team)

Local integration issue

If users report an integration issue, such as being unable to search for a patient record within Concentric or consent PDFs not appearing in the EHR, these are most commonly due to an internal issue within the healthcare organisation, for example, a change in configuration or a networking issue. Details regarding the integration between Concentric and other systems within the organisation should be available to the service desk team, including the internal escalation process for investigating and resolving issues (e.g., contact details for the on-call integration engineer).

Incorrect patient DOB support

It is rare for us to need to escalate a patient-reported issue to the organisation’s service desk. When required, it is usually due to the patient record having the incorrect date of birth. Concentric uses a DOB check as part of the patient access flow, meaning that if the DOB is incorrect on the patient record, then the patient is unable to access the consent information shared with them.

Upon identifying the relevant patient record, an email is sent by us to the organisation’s service desk, stating the patient identifier, episode details, and the steps required to allow the patient to access their consent information. Depending on organisation processes, this may be done by the service desk directly, passed on to another central team such as a data quality team, or passed to the relevant clinical team.

We inform the patient that the issue has been passed to their healthcare organisation, which will investigate, resolve, and communicate back to them when access is possible.

Concentric support working hours

Our core support hours are Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm (excluding bank holidays in England and Wales). Outside these hours, we continue to monitor messages on a more flexible basis. All enquiries are triaged by urgency, and we aim to respond within one working day.