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Encounters
Open a service recording for patient interactions and add clinical items, record progress notes, prescribe medications, review investigations, write referrals and manage recalls.
Encounters
Record patient encounters in Communicare using any one of the following methods.
Clinical Records
The clinical record comprises all clinical information recorded for a patient in Communicare by your health service. It includes clinical items and recalls.
Special Qualifiers
Special qualifiers include calculating qualifiers, HL7 qualifiers, required qualifiers, qualifiers with a range and qualifiers linked to system codes.
Glomerular Filtration Rate
The special qualifiers GFR (actual body weight) and GFR (ideal body weight) calculate the Glomerular Filtration Rate to 1 decimal place based on the Cockcroft and Gault formula.

Encounters
Open a service recording for patient interactions and add clinical items, record progress notes, prescribe medications, review investigations, write referrals and manage recalls.
- Encounters
  Record patient encounters in Communicare using any one of the following methods.
  - Service Recording
    In Communicare, a service is where a patient interacts with a service provider. In general, it means to have a consultation with a health care provider, that is, a Doctor, Nurse, or Healthworker.
  - Clinical Records
    The clinical record comprises all clinical information recorded for a patient in Communicare by your health service. It includes clinical items and recalls.
    - Action required banner
    - Summary tab
      The summary tab contains a summary of the patient's clinical record. Which panes are visible depends on which System Parameters have been set.
    - Progress Notes
      Progress Notes are available for all providers for each service.
    - Detail tab
      The Detail tab displays the clinical items and clinical data that make up a patient's clinical record. The content displayed depends on the type of clinical item or data. Investigations and medications are also listed.
    - Clinical items
      A clinical item is the basic element of a clinical record. Clinical items are included in Communicare by default, but can be customised for your health service.
    - Clinical Terms Browser
      The Clinical Terms Browser is displayed each time you need to select a Clinical Item Type.
    - Episode
    - Qualifier edit panes
      In the clinical item, set or change the values of qualifiers associated with that clinical item in the qualifier edit panes.
    - Add drawings to clinical items
      Use drawing qualifiers in clinical items to more accurately display conditions or procedures on preset clinical images.
    - Special Qualifiers
      Special qualifiers include calculating qualifiers, HL7 qualifiers, required qualifiers, qualifiers with a range and qualifiers linked to system codes.
      - Body Mass Index
        The Body Mass Index special qualifier calculates BMI to 1 decimal place.
      - Glomerular Filtration Rate
        The special qualifiers GFR (actual body weight) and GFR (ideal body weight) calculate the Glomerular Filtration Rate to 1 decimal place based on the Cockcroft and Gault formula.
      - Required qualifiers
        Some clinical items have required qualifiers that allow multiple providers to contribute to a health assessment over a period of time.
    - Referral Status
      A referral might have one of these statuses.
    - Finding Hidden Windows
    - Data Entry Wizard
- Medications
  This topic covers all Medications Management functionality within Communicare.
- Clinical Support

Glomerular Filtration Rate

The special qualifiers GFR (actual body weight) and GFR (ideal body weight) calculate the Glomerular Filtration Rate to 1 decimal place based on the Cockcroft and Gault formula.

For female patients:

((140 - AGE) X WEIGHT) / SE CREATININE

For male patients:

(((140 - AGE) X WEIGHT) / SE CREATININE) x 1.23

Where:

AGE is in completed years
WEIGHT is in kg
SE CREATININE is in umol/l

For GFR (actual body weight), the actual body weight is used. For

GFR
                    (ideal body weight)

the maximum adult lean weight is used if this is lower than the actual body weight. This is calculated as:

(HEIGHT x HEIGHT) x 25

Where Height is in m

Communicare requires the qualifiers to use the following units:

Weight in kg
Height in cm
Se Creatinine in either umol/L or mmol/L

Add the GFR (actual body weight) qualifier and the GFR (ideal body weight) qualifier to separate clinical items:

Add the GFR (actual body weight) qualifier with Weight and Creatinine.
Add the GFR (ideal body weight) qualifier with Weight, Height and Creatinine.

Tip: If Weight, Height or Creatinine are not provided at the same time, the most recent measure of weight, height or creatinine are used.

14 November 2023