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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.
Central Data
Communicare maintains and distributes a specific set of Clinical Item definitions. Centrally maintained Clinical Item definitions are referred to as central items.

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 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.
  - 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
  - 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.
    - Datasets
      Communicare includes some datasets by default. Other datasets are optional and are available on request.
  - 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.

Central Data

Communicare maintains and distributes a specific set of Clinical Item definitions. Centrally maintained Clinical Item definitions are referred to as central items.

The central items may be for one or more specific projects such as the Aboriginal Family Futures Project or may be used to maintain and distribute standard code sets such as ICPC-2 PLUS or ICD-10. Recalls and generic protocols are also included so that central control may be exercised over recalls. This allows central distribution of immunisation schedules, for example.

Your administrator can configure a unique set of additional Clinical Item definitions for your site which are retained when Central data is updated. Use reports such as Reference Tables > Clinical Item Types Added to help maintain your local, unique Clinical Item definitions when central Clinical Item definitions are added and updated.

Central data items are updated regularly and distributed automatically with each new version of Communicare. Alternatively, administrators can use the Communicare Data Updater to update Central data as required.

Note:

Central datasets have their own access groups. For any site users, including the administrator, to use or even see the Central items, users must be added to these groups.
If there is a conflict in a description between a Central item and a site item, the site item will generally be deleted if not in use, otherwise the site description will be changed by appending [1], [2], [3] and so on to the site description. Conflicts are listed in the Action window. Your administrator should amend the site description as soon as possible to avoid any confusion.
To change the Central datasets included in your Communicare instance, set the datasets required in the Datasets list on the System Parameters > System tab and run the Data Updater. Contact Communicare Support for help.

7 July 2025