Frequently Asked Questions

Healthcare Identifiers

A healthcare identifier (HI) is a unique 16 digit number for organisations, clinicians and consumers which makes sure the right health information is associated with the right individual. The HI Service forms the basis of other eHealth initiatives such as the My Health Record (eHealth Record).

HPI-Os

All health services should now have a Healthcare Provider Identifier-Organisation (HPI-O) number as this is a requirement for services to participate in the My Health Record and future SEMS processes. It is only a ‘seed’ health service organisation that needs the number; health services that are auspiced by another health organisation do not need a HPI-O at this time.

HPI-Is

Healthcare Provider Identifier-Individual (HPI-I) is the identifying number for future secure electronic transmission of patient data by healthcare providers and other health personnel involved in providing patient care. This number is allocated by Medicare (Department of Human Services - DHS). It will be required in the future for accessing the My Health Record and for sending messages by SEMS.

A clinician’s HPI-I is '8003 61' followed by the 10 digit AHPRA User ID. The User ID is the number AHPRA (Australian Health Providers Registration Authority) discloses to healthcare providers on their annual renewal notification (either by email or hard copy) to login to the AHPRA website (this should not be confused with the AHPRA registration number).

It is good planning sense for health services to begin recording their staffs HPI-Is. NEHTA is investigating a way for health service organisations to be able to directly search for the HPI-I number but this will be dependent on Privacy Legislation.

The other way to get HPI-I’s is by clinicians going online to the Department of Human Services (http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/provider/health-identifier) and completing an online one page application (‘Healthcare Identifiers Service’) to request their details be published on the Health Provider Directory (HPD). Once they submit this electronically, generally the next day someone from DHS will call and do a very short confirmation of name, DOB and provider number and then the process is complete.

The ACCHSs Organisation Maintenance Officer (OMO) or Responsible Officer (RO) can then access the HPD, via the Health Provider Online Service (HPOS) and the use of their smartcard or iKey and search for the clinician on the HPD and to access their HPI-I. It sounds confusing but it’s actually quite simple. Calling APHRA (1300 419 495, http://www.ahpra.gov.au/) is relatively painless as all they ask for is name, DOB and provider number.

Appointments

How do I edit a session template after the sessions have been generated and inserted in the appointment book and then reinsert them into the appointment book?

Cancel the sessions you wish to change, all the way to the horizon. Add cancelled appointments to the reschedule queue and print the cancellation reports.
Edit the session template and timeslots.
Re-enable the session template.
Right click on the session template and select 'Apply to appointments book' and accept the default date range.
Examine the appointments book to confirm that the desired change has occurred.
Use the cancellation reports and reschedule queue to re-book any cancelled appointments. Be sure to advise patients if any appointment times have changed.

Biographics

How do I edit the 'Records kept at' list available on the Administration tab of the Patient Biographics?

Go to File > Reference Tables > Encounter Place. and check that the place exists in the Encounter Place table. If it does, check the box labelled 'Record Storage'. If it doesn't exist, add it to the table by clicking the green + button.

Prescribing

When I edit a Regular Item from the Summary page the changes are not made to the initial prescription - why not?

Editing a Regular Item should not change a previous prescription, only subsequent prescriptions of that regular item.

Is it possible to print the generic name on the script rather than the brand name?

In Communicare V20.2 and later, generic active ingredients are printed on all scripts to meet the Active Ingredient Prescribing legislation, including those prescribed by brand. For more information, see Active Ingredient Prescribing.

You can also set the default prescribing options on the File > System Parameters > Clinical tab. When prescribing you can override the default by choosing to prescribe by brand name.

When prescribing, in the Add Medication window you can switch between Brand Name and Generic Name.

Is it possible to print more than two medications on each prescription?

Yes, it will print as many as will fit (possibly three). However separate prescriptions will be printed for those drugs where you have ticked the box ‘allow brand substitution’. That is because there is only one check box on the stationery that applies to all the drugs on the form.

Authority prescriptions always print on a separate form.

Is it possible to write prescriptions without making it a new client encounter, e.g. when writing scripts owed to the pharmacy when the client is not seen?

The short answer is no. If the client is not seen then the service should be recorded with the mode “Administration – no client contact’. We need the service to determine who wrote the script. It is similar to the situation where a script is written during a home visit – here you would record the service with the mode ‘Clients home’. It is important to remember that you DO NOT need to enter Service Recording to do this. Just open the Clinical Record and click on the yellow triangle to edit details of the service if appropriate.

Reports

What do I do with reports that have been sent from Communicare by e-mail?

Communicare will occasionally send queries for use at a particular site. The e-mail will have files attached, ending in .sql, .qry or .mkr (layout only). To use these queries in Communicare, do the following:

Save all the attached files in a convenient folder e.g. My Documents
Open Communicare
Select File > Queries > Import Query from file.
Click the Import button at the bottom left
Find each of the files you saved in 1. (you will only see the .sql and .qry files) and click the Open button (you will need to do this for each of the queries in turn)
Confirm you want to make each query public if it will need to be seen by anyone logged on with a different user name to you
The queries will now be visible under Report|[first part of query name]|[last part of query name]
You can now delete the files you saved in 1. if you wish

Requesting a New Communicare Report

If you wish to request Communicare to create a new SQL report for your system, print the form Help > Forms > Report Request Form. Fill in the details, get the form signed by the CEO/Administrator, scan and raise a support request.

When using QueryBuilder or SQL, how can I search for a word that contains an apostrophe, such as Men's Health?

The issue here is that SQL uses single quotation marks (apostrophes) to delimit strings (words) and will therefore misinterpret a single quotation mark in the word being searched for. The solution is to simply double the quote. This process is most easily illustrated with an example. Instead of writing Men's Health write Men''s Health

Why does the Service Activity Report (SAR) on immunisations report a greater number of immunisations than the Immunisations Performed report?

By default, the Immunisations Performed report does not include deceased patients. Check the Include Deceased box to report all immunisations performed.

Service Recording

If staff forget to finish a consult on the service record will the consult be counted when we do a query of how many consults there were for a particular period and what happens if that person is seen more than once in a given period and some of the consults haven't been finished?

Our service reporting is based on "start time" only, with the assumption that every service ends even if the end was not recorded. Therefore, unfinished services should be counted by the reports.

Generally, a service activity report counts every "started" service record, regardless of how many times an individual client is represented. Having said that, it is easy to create a report that will count the number of individuals if that is required.

System Administration

When do I reboot the Communicare server?

This may be required when, for example, electronic pathology results do not appear to be being processed.

How do I change a User’s password in Communicare?

Log on to Communicare as the Administrator and open File > User Groups. Click on the user group that the user belongs to then double-click on the username. Enter and confirm a new password.

Note: You are not able to see the user’s password, you are only able to CHANGE the password to a new one.

How do I install Communicare Client?

Browse the network to locate the Communicare Installation Files. Locate and double click on Setup.exe in the Installation Folder. Sites using an Appliance Server can navigate to Entire Network > Microsoft Windows Network > Communicare > CCAREXYZ > Install > CCare.

What should I do when a server’s name or database pathname is changed?

Reinstall Communicare on each workstation: see above.

What does this error message mean?

Cannot create file C:\\Program Files\\Communicare\\xxxxxxxxxxx The most likely cause of this error is that Windows is denying the user access to create files. This is a configuration problem and not a Communicare issue. The Windows user needs rights to write files to the folder specified.