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ℹ️ Introduction
This article explains the recommended housekeeping tasks for maintaining your SystmOne environment when using Ardens resources. By the end of this guide, you will understand how to review and manage templates, protocols, reports, organisation groups, and other shared resources to help improve usability, governance, and system performance.
Background
Over time, practices can accumulate a large number of templates, protocols, reports, and other resources within SystmOne. These may have been created locally, shared through organisational groups, or inherited from previous staff or projects.
Without regular housekeeping, outdated or duplicated resources can:
Increase the risk of staff using incorrect templates or protocols
Create clinical governance concerns
Impact QOF or Enhanced Service data capture
Cause duplication and confusion
Affect SystmOne performance
Ardens maintains strict governance processes and insurance cover for Ardens-managed resources. Practices creating and maintaining their own local resources should ensure appropriate governance and indemnity arrangements are in place.
How Ardens Can Help
Ardens provides centrally maintained templates, protocols, alerts, and reports designed to support best practice workflows within SystmOne.
Regular housekeeping helps practices:
Keep active resources organised
Reduce duplication
Improve staff efficiency
Maintain optimal system performance
Ensure the latest Ardens resources are being used
We recommend reviewing housekeeping processes regularly as part of routine system maintenance.
👥Organisation Groups
Many practices belong to multiple organisational groups used for collaborative sharing between practices, PCNs, or ICBs. These groups may contain shared templates, protocols, questionnaires, reports, alerts, and other resources such as URLs.
Over time, some groups may no longer be required.
Review and Leave Groups
Go to Setup > Users & Policy > Organisational Groups
Select each group and click the Shared Content tab to see what has been shared
Identify groups that are no longer required
Right-click the group name and select Leave Group
If you still require the group but notice outdated or duplicated resources, contact the group owner to request review or removal.
‼️Warning: Leaving a group immediately removes access to all shared resources from that group.
‼️Warning: If you are the owner of a group and leave or delete it, all linked templates and resources will be permanently deleted for all member practices. This action cannot be undone.
👁️Views
Unused or outdated views can create unnecessary clutter within SystmOne.
Deactivate or Delete Views
Go to Setup > Data Output > View Maintenance
Review local and shared views
Untick the Active box for views no longer required
Delete obsolete local views where appropriate
We recommend initially deactivating views before permanently deleting them.
⚠️Please note: Home Visit summaries and other printing summaries should generally remain active if still in use.
📃 Templates
Regular review of templates helps reduce the risk of staff selecting outdated resources.
Review and Delete Templates
Go to Setup > Data Entry > New Template Maintenance
Expand By Availability
Review active and inactive templates
Untick the Active box for templates no longer required
Delete obsolete local templates once confirmed as unused
Templates shared through organisational groups cannot be deleted locally and can only be made inactive.
Older templates can also be found under:
Setup > Data Entry > Old Template Maintenance
These are being phased out in favour of newer templates with enhanced functionality.
⚠️ Please note: SystmOne limits the number of inactive templates allowed. If approximately 37% of templates are inactive, you may see a warning preventing further deactivation.
➡️ Protocols
Locally created protocols can sometimes create significant performance issues, particularly if linked to large reports.
Review and Delete Protocols
Go to Setup > Workflow Support > Protocols
Expand By Availability on the left-hand side
Review each protocol folder in turn
Untick the Active box for views no longer required. For any protocols that you leave active, ensure that their filter or trigger is not linked to a large report.
Delete obsolete protocols once confirmed as unused
We recommend deactivating protocols first before permanently deleting them.
⚠️Please note: We advise that all Ardens protocols are left active
📈 Reports
Regular housekeeping of reports within Clinical Reporting is strongly recommended.
We suggest reviewing searches and reports with search folder owners to identify:
Duplicate searches
Outdated reports
Unused folders and resources
Delete Reports
Go to Reporting > Clinical Reporting
Review reports within the Local Reports folder
Sort by the Last Run column to identify unused reports
You can only delete locally owned reports.
Report Symbols
Red exclamation mark = linked to a Patient Status Alert
Blue arrows = linked to a Protocol
Batch symbol = configured as a batch report
Before deleting reports, check for any linked dependencies.
🧹Additional Housekeeping
Automatic Consultations
Go to Setup > Workflow Support > Automatic Consultations
Review local automatic consultations
Deactivate or delete obsolete items
We recommend keeping Ardens automatic consultations active.
To prioritise local consultations above Ardens folders, consider adding “aa” to the beginning of local folder names.
Patient Status Alerts
Go to Setup > Data Output > Patient Status Alerts
View alerts by availability
Review local alerts and deactivate or delete where appropriate
We recommend leaving Ardens alerts active.
Questionnaires
Go to Setup > Data Entry > Questionnaires
View by availability
Review and deactivate or delete obsolete questionnaires
Word Letter Templates
Go to Setup > Referrals & Letters > New Word Letter Templates
View by availability
Review locally owned templates
Templates owned by other organisations, such as Ardens, cannot be deactivated locally.
Delete outdated local templates once confirmed as no longer required.
URLs
Go to Setup > User & Policy > URL & Program Maintenance
Review organisation-specific URLs
Delete obsolete URLs
SystmOne does not provide an option to deactivate URLs.
Workflow Items
Large numbers of unactioned workflow items can affect SystmOne performance.
These may include:
Tasks
Notifications
Scanned documents
Pathology results
Dispensing jobs
We recommend encouraging staff to process workflow items promptly to help reduce system load and improve patient record performance.
❓FAQs
How often should housekeeping be completed?
We recommend practices review housekeeping tasks annually, or more frequently if significant numbers of local resources are created.
Should Ardens templates and protocols be deactivated?
No. We recommend leaving Ardens-maintained resources active unless specifically advised otherwise.
Can shared templates from organisational groups be deleted?
No. Shared templates can only be made inactive locally unless removed by the owning organisation.
🏠Additional Support
To further your understanding of the Ardens resources:
Book training for your GP Practice, PCN or ICB
Contact our Support Team for support in real time