Version 11.4

Release notes for V11.4.

Secure Message Delivery

This version of Communicare has been enhanced to send messages via Secure Message Delivery (SMD), rather than secure email. To enable SMD you must have a local installation of the Argus 6 messaging installation and Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 or greater. See the SMD page for more information.

Human Services Directory

Communicare now interacts with the Human Services Directory (HSD) to lookup addresses. Additional detail is imported with these addresses which enables Communicare to send documents to these addresses via SMD. HSD lookup is available in the Address Book Search window. To use the HSD you must have Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 or greater.

<u>Updating Your Address Book:</u> As part of the upgrade to use HSD and SMD, old address book entries will need to be matched to their entries on the HSD.
  • Before the upgrade we will send you a list of all address book entries that have been automatically downloaded through Argus (not manually created), that have never been used. These will be deleted when you upgrade unless you specify that they should not be.
  • Following the upgrade, any entries that have not been deleted (i.e. have been manually created, or automatically downloaded through Argus and used), and that you send messages to, will have to be manually matched to the HSD. This can be done using the 'Match to HSD' button on the Address Maintenance window. Until this is done, the address will not be available to send electronic messages to.
  • Following the upgrade, any new addresses that you wish to send electronic messages to should be downloaded directly from the HSD using the HSD lookup function in the Address Book Search window.

Documents and Results

The 'In-tray' window has been renamed 'Documents and Results' and features a new tab 'Outgoing Documents' to show documents that have been sent via SMD. See new section: Sending and Receiving Documents for further details.

Service Recording Medicare Card Status

The service recording window now displays the incomplete Medicare details icon if a patient's Medicare card details are missing or incorrect. This should help remind reception staff to update details for booked or waiting patients.

Telehealth Video Mode

A new encounter mode of Telehealth Video has been added. Administrators should consider adding this as a mode to any encounter place equipped with the facilities for video conferencing with patients. Providers should use this mode for recording services where the contact with the patient was via video conferencing.

Address Book

The Address Book option from File > Reference Tables has been moved up one level to File > Address Book Maintenance and now it has its own system right. Users who currently have Reference Tables rights will initially have Address Book rights. Administrators should review which user groups have rights to Reference Tables and Address Book with a view to adjusting these so they are appropriate. Administrator can run the report at Report > User Groups > System Rights Grid to assist in this process.(See Address Book).

New Qualifiers with LOINCs

Communicare can now recognise and process the following from incoming HL7 laboratory results:

'PCR (Protein/Creatinine Ratio)' with the units mg/mmol (LOINC 2890-2).

In addition, the existing qualifier 'HbA1c' has been renamed 'HbA1c (%)' and a new qualifier has been created with the name 'HbA1c' and the units of mmol/mol (LOINC 59261-8). For a period of time labs will be sending HbA1c results as % and as mmol/mol but the % value will be phased out. Contact your lab for details.

To review all measures processed by Communicare as qualifiers (i.e. incoming results that will populate graphs and reports immediately with these measures) run the report at Report > Reference Tables > Numeric Qualifiers - Central and select the option 'HL7 only'.

Rural Prescriptions (For NT Users)

Three new options are now available to be used with Rural Prescriptions; 'Show Print Medication Summary Button', 'Print PADDA compliant Health Centre Prescriptions' and 'Remove Dispensing Record' (See System Parameters - Clinical).

A patient's Medication Summary can now be printed.

Prescriber Comments can now be entered against a patient for their prescription.

Prescriptions

The number of items on a prescription is now printed on the prescription.

Communicare In-tray has changed to Documents and Results

Communicare In-tray has been redesigned and now consists of four main categories: Investigation Results, Scanned Documents, Received Documents and Outgoing Documents. (See Documents and Results).

Clinical Record

The following changes have been made to the links on the Links Bar in the Clinical Record.
  • A link will only be visible when permission to view the target has been granted.
  • There is now an Immunisation History link on the summary tab of the clinical record that will take you to a patient's immunisation history.
  • The documents link has changed to inform you when there are unreviewed documents (this now behaves like the Investigations link).

Immunisations now display the dose in the item description when viewed on the detail tab of the clinical record.

The Patient ID is now displayed at the top of the Clinical record

Reports for Individual Patients

Additional reports on the print button of a patient's clinical record allow you to print a full immunisation history with details of batch number, expiry date, dose, etc. and a full medication summary that shows all details shown in the Medication Summary (i.e. current and regular medications only) and also the name of the prescriber.

Patient Appointment and Service History

The Print button caption has been changed from 'Print' to 'Print all future appointments' on the Service List Form.

Tackling Smoking

This version contains the Tackling Smoking dataset. Contact COMMUNICARE for more information.

Peri-natal Depression Project

The Communicare value-added dataset now has a clinical item Perinatal Depression Assessment that will record details of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. This item will populate two reports for the Peri-natal Depression Project:
  • Report | Pregnancy | Perinatal Depression Project
  • Report | Pregnancy | EPDS Scores

Health services with a local clinical item that collects similar data may wish to review this item and decide which to use. Contact Communicare System if you wish to discuss conversion from a local item to this central item.

System Parameters - Devices

The option Show scanner interface has been removed. This option has been deprecated as Communicare handles scanner interfacing.

An edit box that allows the customisation of Maximum Document Size has been added to the devices tab.

Match and Review Result

This window has been re-arranged. The review result section has been moved underneath the list of requests. The print and print preview buttons have been moved towards the bottom-left of the window and icons have been added to them. Request clinical notes and the matched patient's details are now in the top-right corner. The urgent and abnormal boxes have been replaced with status icons and they will only appear if the status is true.

National KPI Reports

New reports have been added for National Key Performance Indicators for Indigenous Primary Health Care (2012). See National KPI Reports for more details.

CAT Exporter

The tool used to export data to the Clinical Audit Tool has had the following changes:
  • When calculating a patient’s “active” status (3 visits in 2 years), providers without provider numbers are now considered. The previous version only considered providers who had provider numbers.
  • All qualifiers (currently supported by the CAT export tool) are exported regardless of whether or not the associated clinical item is “Complete”. The previous version did not export qualifiers recorded on incomplete clinical items.
  • Email and Patient Status from patient biographics are now exported.
  • Alcohol Status is now detected by looking for any qualifier system codes ALP or ALC (normally Alcohol Consumption Level and Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy). Refer to PCS Clinical Audit Tool – User Guide for more information.
  • Smoking Status is now detected by looking for any qualifier system codes SMO or SMP (normally Smoking Status and Smoking During Pregnancy) rather than primary keys. Refer to PCS Clinical Audit Tool – User Guide for more information.
  • Birth weight from the infant's file is now exported. If birth weight is not recorded in infant's biographic details, any qualifier system codes of WKG (normally 'Weight') recorded on day of birth are used.
  • Any qualifiers with system code BMI (normally Body Mass Index) are now exported.
  • International Normalised Ratio and Protein/Creatinine Ratio qualifiers are now found using system codes (INR &amp; PCR) rather than primary keys.
  • Pap Smear, Eye Exam, and Foot Exam qualifiers now found using export codes (PAPSMEAR, EYEEXAM &amp; FOOTEXAM) rather than primary keys. Refer to PCS Clinical Audit Tool – User Guide for more information.
  • Pap Smear investigations are now used to find pap smear checks in addition to clinical items and qualifiers. Refer to PCS Clinical Audit Tool – User Guide for more information.
  • Close button added.