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Administration
Communicare Administrators can tune the way in which Communicare works at your health clinic.
System Administration
System administration functions affect all Communicare users and should be used with care.
Appointment Book Configuration
Before your health service can use the appointment book, you must first configure the background information required for appointments and the appointment session templates that generate sessions into which appointments are booked.
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.
Appointment Timeslots
A timeslot is the period in which an appointment is booked. Timeslots can be of any duration.
Edit Appointment Session Template Timeslots
Edit the start time and duration of timeslots for a session template if required.

Administration
Communicare Administrators can tune the way in which Communicare works at your health clinic.
- System Administration
  System administration functions affect all Communicare users and should be used with care.
  - 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.
  - Reference Tables
  - Appointment Book Configuration
    Before your health service can use the appointment book, you must first configure the background information required for appointments and the appointment session templates that generate sessions into which appointments are booked.
    - Appointment Facilities
      A facility is an object that is needed on an exclusive basis for an appointment.
    - Appointment Requirements
      Requirements are services or objects that may be needed for particular patient appointments and services, such as Fasting Bloods, Test Results, Transport, X-Rays.
    - Appointment Session Type
      An appointment session type defines attributes that are common to a class of Appointment Sessions. Every session has a type.
    - Public Holidays
      Public holidays identify normal working days (or part days) that the practice will be closed.
    - Provider Planned Absences
      Record planned provider absences such as holidays to block dates from the appointment book.
    - 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.
      - Edit Appointment Session Templates
        You can edit a session template if required.
      - Edit Appointment Session Templates After Insertion
        Edit a session template after the sessions have been generated and inserted into the appointment book and then reinsert them into the appointment book.
      - Apply Appointment Session Templates
        You can force Communicare to generate appointment timeslots in the appointment book according to the details of the template, rather than waiting for the nightly process.
      - Delete Appointment Session Templates
        If an appointment session template is no longer useful, you can deactivate it.
      - Appointment Encounter Program
        Assigning an encounter program to the appointment template ensures that all future sessions generated will have the same encounter program.
      - Appointment Sessions
        An appointment session is the period of time for which a Provider and Facility are allocated to provide services. Sessions are normally divided into timeslots.
      - Appointment Timeslots
        A timeslot is the period in which an appointment is booked. Timeslots can be of any duration.
        Edit Appointment Session Template Timeslots
        Edit the start time and duration of timeslots for a session template if required.
  - 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
    Communicare's security scheme is designed to be easy to maintain yet effective. It works on 3 layers: SYSDBA, ADMINISTRATOR, MEDISYS.
  - Daily Process Service
    The Daily Process Service is a Windows Service which can automatically run a variety of database tasks each day.
  - Automatic Patient Status Change
    Every night the server will check the Inactivity years in system parameters and use it to change a patient's status after the specified number of years, based on the existence of contact services and patient address.
  - 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
    Communicare maintains and distributes a specific set of Clinical Item definitions. 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. These XML datasets can then be loaded into PEN CS' Clinical Audit Tool (CAT).
  - Background Processes
    Communicare runs a number of server-side background processes that integrate with various external services.
  - Communicare Logs
    Adjust the level of detail recorded in Communicare logs if required.
- Tools
  Use these tools to help manage Communicare.
- Regular Administrator Tasks
  There are several regular maintenance tasks for the Communicare Administrator to perform.

Edit Appointment Session Template Timeslots

Edit the start time and duration of timeslots for a session template if required.

The Timeslot Template window:

Displays the identity of the owning session at the top of the form, that is provider, day of week, start time, repeat start, repeat value.
Displays details of each timeslot, including calculated starting time.
As timeslots are added, deleted or changed the session end time is adjusted and displayed.
Provider or facility overlaps are not allowed.
Reserved timeslots are times intended for non-contact periods that cannot be booked. Set either a reserved timeslot or a release time, not both. Enter a comment for reserved appointment slots if required. Comments are displayed in the appointment book, but ignored if the slot is not reserved.
If a release time is entered, the slot cannot be booked more than this number of minutes before it starts. Set either a reserved timeslot or a release time, not both.

To edit timeslots:

Select File > Appointments > Session Templates.
In the Session Templates window, right-click the template whose timeslots you want to edit and select TimeSlots.
In the Timeslots window, edit the required start times and duration.
If required, to reserve a timeslot for administration or other requirements, set Reserved.
For regular timeslots, to make this timeslot available at a certain time, add the number of minutes before the timeslot starts that it becomes available.
Click Save.

16 February 2026