Version 18.3

Release notes for V18.3.

Patient Sex

The following new Sex values have been added (supplementing the existing Male, Female and [blank]):
  • Indeterminate
  • Intersex
  • Not Stated
  • Unknown / Inadequately Described

Note that some external bodies do not yet recognise sexes other than Male or Female. For example, attempts to verify Medicare cards online will fail if a patient has a sex that is neither Male nor Female. In Communicare, recall rules and qualifier definitions have been adapted to allow rules to be set up for patients with a recorded sex other than Male or Female.

Encounter Place Multi-Level Hierarchy

If an encounter place hierarchy has been configured then Encounter Places are displayed in an hierarchical structure instead of a flat list on the following windows:
  • Appointment Book filter
  • Service recording filter

Split Encounter Place and Encounter Mode

Encounter Place and Encounter Mode are now displayed in separate fields instead of displaying together, preserving existing business rules on the following windows:
  • Provider, Place and Mode Selection, including Main Toolbar and Data Entry Wizard
  • Service Record
  • Match and Review Result

Location Code and Facility Code

Location Code and Facility Code fields are added into Encounter Place.

Clinical Record

If system is configured to have multiple customized URL links then in the Clinical record, the AIR button is replaced by a "Go To" button and the list of URL links appear in a popup menu.

MIMS Pharmaceutical Database

  • Special warnings are now highlighted on the Product Information window.
  • Duplication of some information is removed from the Drug interaction warning window when regenerating a health centre prescription.
  • The Communicare disclaimer now includes the MIMS End User Licence Agreement (2014).

Data Synchronisation

Refreshing the database has been made easier by adding a new 'Wait for new backup and download when available' button. Other improvements have been made to deal with server reboots and network errors. See Data Synchronisation.

Intramail

  • Opening the Select Recipients window in Intramail will set the focus on the Search field.
  • Discard button on the Intramail New Message window renamed to Cancel.
  • Help button added to the Intramail New Message window.

User Group Maintenance

The User Group Maintenance window has been revamped to facilitate the mapping of Active Directory groups to Communicare user groups.

Administrator role

All 'Administrator only' tasks now can be performed by any user in the System Administrators user group.

Firebird Database Server

This Communicare database has moved from SQL Dialect 1 to SQL Dialect 3. What this means for you is improvements in performance when running queries but it also means that some of your local reports may fail due to the stricter nature of how the queries are written. You may run a report and see an error message that contains the words 'dialect 3' or 'ambiguous fieldname' or 'field not found'. If this happens, contact your local administrator.

Note: Administrators - if you write your own reports then this simple guide may help you, otherwise contact the Communicare helpdesk for assistance. In most cases the report can be adjusted straight away:
  • Strings must be delimited by single quotes as double quotes are no longer allowed.
  • Some values may need casting, e.g. 'TODAY' should be 'cast(('TODAY' as timestamp)' if you are going to subtract 1 from this.
  • All fieldnames must reference the table if the query joins two or more tables with matching fieldnames.
  • Each field in a UNION statement needs to be matched to the same datatype.
  • There are some new reserved keywords (see https://github.com/FirebirdSQL/firebird/blob/master/doc/sql.extensions/README.keywords).
  • In the PARAMETERS section all constants returned as fields need an alias (e.g. 'select cast('Yes' as varchar(3)) from rdb$database' should be 'select cast('Yes' as varchar(3)) DISPLAY_FIELD from rdb$database').
  • Dividing two integers now as an integer always rounds down whereas before it would round to the nearest integer.

</table>

Workstation Location

The Workstation Location field has been removed from the login screen.

Features for Western Australian Country Health Service (WACHS)

Active Directory Integration
  • Windows Trusted Authentication can be used when Communicare connects to the database if Trusted Authentication / Single Sign-on is enabled. Connections to the Firebird database support mixed mode security. Automatic synchronisation of Communicare user groups can be mapped to Active Directory groups.
  • There is an option to set Single Sign-on feature during installation. User verification within Communicare will continue to work the same when the user records a medication for which an allergy is recorded and for recording My Health Record consent.
  • See User Maintenance for details. Note that this feature will be available for all Communicare users in a future version.
Note: WACHS users - Some changes detailed above were made available in version 15.2 and are not new for you. They are documented here because they are new features now available to all users of Communicare.

.Net Requirements

In order for Communicare to run .Net 4.5.2 or greater needs to be installed.