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Administration
Communicare Administrators can tune the way in which Communicare works at your health clinic using the configuration, tools and task information.
System Administration
Address Book
The address book stores local address book entries and address book entries that are linked to external directory services.
Enterprise Provider Directory
The Enterprise Provider Directory (EPD) is a central directory available online for searching through all medical sites, services and practitioners.

Administration
Communicare Administrators can tune the way in which Communicare works at your health clinic using the configuration, tools and task information.
- System Administration
  - System Parameters
    If you belong to the System Administrators user group, you can configure Communicare by setting system parameters.
  - Organisation Maintenance
    Configure Communicare for your organisation by setting organisation parameters. Changes to organisation parameters affect the Communicare system for the organisation and all workstations.
  - User Groups
    Users of the Communicare system are organised into groups. Rights to access various parts of Communicare are given to these groups of users.
  - Address Book
    The address book stores local address book entries and address book entries that are linked to external directory services.
    - Address Book Entry
      Use the Address Book Entry window to maintain the details of people, organisations and places.
    - Address Book Search
    - Enterprise Provider Directory
      The Enterprise Provider Directory (EPD) is a central directory available online for searching through all medical sites, services and practitioners.
    - Provider Directory Service
      Use the Search Provider Directory Service window to search the Provider Directory Service (PDS) for an individual or organisation and create a record in your local address book.
  - Reference Tables
  - Appointment Session Templates
    Appointment Session Templates identify when appointments can be made, in a general way. They are used as a template for creating the sessions into which appointments are actually booked.
  - Reference Tables
  - Providers
    The Providers window lists clinicians who have been added to Communicare as providers at your health service.
  - Medicare Number Import
    Patient Medicare numbers can be imported directly from files provided by Medicare Australia.
  - Patient Import
  - Communicare Security
  - Daily Process Service
  - Automatic Patient Status Change
  - Terminal Server and Communicare
    The Communicare client can be installed on a Terminal Server.
  - Backup Regimes
    Backups of your Communicare database are critical for business continuity in the event of a disaster. Communicare is automatically backed up to the server nightly. Your site should take regular backups of these backups.
  - Disaster Recovery
    In the event of disaster, call Communicare Support on 1800 798 441 and follow these steps to recover your data.
  - File Transfer
    Communicare demos and updates are available from the Communicare User Portal - Help and Support tab.
  - Firewall Configuration
  - Upgrades
    Communicare upgrades are performed remotely by Communicare Support at a time arranged with the system administrator.
  - Database Connection Settings
  - Central Data Update
    This program allows a specific set of Clinical Item definitions to be centrally maintained and distributed to user sites by Communicare. These centrally maintained Clinical Item definitions are referred to as central items.
  - Terms Conversion
    Together with your Implementation Consultant, when your site goes live with Communicare, a clinician with Administrator user privileges can use the Terms Converter tool to convert local terms into centrally maintained terms, for example, ICPC-2 PLUS terms.
  - CAT Export Tool
    Use the CAT Export Tool to export datasets defined by the Improvement Foundation, from Communicare as XML.
  - Background Processes
    Communicare runs a number of server-side background processes that integrate with various external services.
- Tools
  Use these tools to help manage Communicare.
- Regular Administrator Tasks
  There are several regular maintenance tasks for the Communicare Administrator to perform.

Enterprise Provider Directory

The Enterprise Provider Directory (EPD) is a central directory available online for searching through all medical sites, services and practitioners.

Entries in the EPD can be linked to the Endpoint Location Service (ELS), to make them available for Secure Messaging. Therefore if you want to be able to send documents via Secure Messaging to a service, you must import this service from the EPD.

EPD and Communicare's Address Book

Address records can be downloaded from the online National Health Services Directory. This can be achieved through the Address Book Search window or through the Address Book Entry window. Once synchronised, the address book entry will be synchronised with the information in the EPD daily. The synchronised information is not editable from Communicare, because any changes would be overwritten when synchronising. Other fields that are not available in the EPD are fully editable and will not be changed when synchronising.

Communicare will attempt to communicate with the EPD only when prompted by the user using the Search EPD or Match to EPD functions. It will also attempt to connect to the local installation of Argus at the same time. If either fails, an error message will be displayed and Communicare will re-attempt the connect each time the user tries to look up the EPD. If the connection succeeds, then this stays in place for the rest of the session (until Communicare is closed). If the connection is lost during normal use of Communicare, the system will again try to reconnect with each EPD lookup.

Configuring for the EPD

To enable access to the EPD you need a local installation of Argus 6, and the URL and API Key of the EPD web service.

Once Argus is set-up, configured, and enabled:

In File > System Parameters > System tab, set Address Book Integration - EPD. See System Parameters - System.
In File > System Parameters > Web Services tab, in the EPD section, enter the URL and API Key. See System Parameters - WebService Configuration.

To check if EPD is enabled:

In the File > Address Book Maintenance search for an address.
Click Search EPD, enter some search details and click Search Now.

The system should search the EPD. Double-click an address in the EPD Search Results window and make sure you can save this to your local Communicare address book.

14 November 2023