Version 11.2

Release notes for V11.2.

Text Shortcuts

Now available within Progress Notes and the Letter Writer, are text shortcuts. This allows you to type a shorthand word, which will expand to configured template text. For example, typing '.QUIT' could expand to commonly used information for patients requiring assistance to quit smoking. These shortcuts are configurable by the system administrator. More information is available at: Text Shortcuts.

Social Problems Viewing Right

All Central clinical items with the topic 'Social Problems' have had their viewing right of 'Common' replaced with a new viewing right of 'Social Problems' because of the sensitivity of many of these items. After this upgrade any user group with previous access to 'Common' will have access to 'Social Problems'. User groups with no access to 'Common' will have their access unchanged.
Important: It is critical that the Administrator review all user groups to see if this new access right is appropriate to that group. If the upgrade found a prior local viewing right of 'Social Problems' this has been renamed. Contact COMMUNICARE if you require further assistance.

NT KPI Reports

This version of Communicare introduces version 1.3.3 of the NT Aboriginal Health Key Performance Indicators. The Administrator should review local clinical items that may have been created and adjust them in the following way:
  • Any clinical item that is an indication that a Pap Smear has been performed should be given the export code of PAPSMEAR. These will now also be looked for as evidence that a woman has had a Pap Smear on that date.
  • Any clinical item that is evidence of an antenatal check (i.e. it has the rule code of PR-CHECK and the system code of PRE) should have the qualifier Antenatal check performed added to be able to record if the check was done at the health service or elsewhere.
  • Panvax and Fluvax recalls are excluded from the definition of fully immunised children when a health service does not use the immunisation review items.

See NTKPI for more detail.

Antenatal Care

Some specific conditions can now be recorded in the obstetric summary against a specific pregnancy number. These terms are effectively qualifiers of the current or past pregnancy and include: 'Pregnancy;high risk', 'Pregnancy;multiple', 'Pregnancy;ectopic' and 'Pregnancy;unplanned'. Also included are conditions that relate to a specific pregnancy such as 'Diabetes;gestational', 'Oedema;pregnancy', and 'Hypertension;in pregnancy'. To allow a local clinical item to be able to record a specific pregnancy number it should have the rule code of PR-STAT and the system code of PRE.

Student Providers

Providers may now be identified as 'student' via a checkbox in the Provider Edit dialog. A student provider will be indicated in the clinical record for any contacts or progress notes that they write.

Patient Email Address

A patient's email address can now be recorded in Patient Biographics.

Drawing Qualifiers

Drawing Qualifiers now display when using the Latest Qualifier letter item.

Automated Calculation of Gestation

There has been a revision of the way that this value is automatically caclulated when clicking in a Gestation qualifier edit box. The value is still calculated in whole weeks but it is assumed that a woman who is 36 weeks pregnant, say, will have a gestation of 36 weeks until the gestation is 37 weeks (i.e. 3 weeks before the EDD). This is analagous to the way a patient's age is displayed in whole years until the next birthday.

INR (International Normalised Ratio) Chart

A chart displaying the current target INR and past INR values and associated warfarin dosage is now available in the Clinical Record via the INR toolbar button.

Reports for Individual Patients

SQL reports that present data for an individual patient can now appear in the Clinical Record on a menu that appears when the Print button is clicked. Initially the following centrally maintained reports are available from this menu:
  • EPC Summary for Selected Patient (also available on the Report | Electronic Claims menu). This report details Medicare claims over the past two years for EPC items including allied health claims.
  • Biographics for Selected Patient (also available on the Report | Patients menu). This report prints details of a patient's biograohics.
  • Patient Mailing Label (also available on the Report | Patients menu). This report prints a single mailing label for a patient designed for a label printer.
  • Patient Specimen Label (also available on the Report | Patients menu). This report prints a single specimen label for a patient designed for a label printer.
  • Patient Measurement History (also available on the Report | Qualifiers menu). This report shows all qualifier values for a selected qualifier for a patient, ordered by date.

Locally created and other reports not centrally maintained can be placed on this menu so long as they are for a single patient. Contact COMMUNICARE for advice.

Service Recording - Ordering

It is now possible to order services by Patient Name, Start/Withdraw time and Encounter Place and Mode columns.

Communicare CAT Exporter

The Communicare CAT Exporter is now available for Administrators to export data for the PEN Clinical Audit Tool. See CAT Export.

Preferred Language and Language Spoken at Home

These lists have been augmented with wider definitions of Aboriginal languages, such as 'Yolngu Matha, nfd', 'Western Desert Language, nfd', etc. The text 'nfd' refers to 'no further definition'.

Special Patient Check

The service now has the ability to enable a custom patient check dialog which will be displayed when a user accesses a patient's record. The user must confirm the check before they can access the patient's record. See Special Patient Check for more information.

Database Server Upgrade

The back-end database server has been upgraded from Firebird 2.1 to Firebird 2.5. This upgrade will increase stability and improve performance of the server.

Error Logging

This version introduces unified logging of errors to the entire system. Administrators can control whether these error logs are sent back to Communicare Helpdesk. Communicare strongly recommends that this option be left enabled to assist in the resolution of active problems.

See System Parameters | System for more information.

Appointment Book

The 'Free Appointment Search' function now allows you to select the next free appointment slot filtered by a specific appointment slot type. See Appointment Book for more information.

Internet Explorer 9 and PDF Links

As of April 2011, IE9 was available for download through Windows Updates for the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. However, a defect in IE9 causes help documentation to crash when an embedded link is clicked. This includes the Printable Forms section of Communicare Help.

We advise users to not install (or uninstall) the IE9 update until this defect has been fixed by Microsoft. Please contact your system administrator if you are unsure of how to do this.