Telstra Health introduces new update to Communicare – Version 21

Telstra Health is delighted to share with you our latest update to Communicare – Version 21

Version 21 offers improved performance and reliability with My Health Record integrations, enhanced prescribing and medication tools, a new SMS service, and immunisation functionality to support the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination rollout.

Version 21.1 introduced a large number of enhancements to medications management, with Version 21.2 delivering new features like The George Institute Health Tracker tool.

Overview of key enhancements

Key enhancements for V21.1:

• Improved performance and reliability with My Health record integrations
• Compliance with legislative changes mandating COVID-19 vaccinations and AIR upload administration
•  Enhanced medication safety with improved supply and administer workflows
• Improved prescribing decision support with interaction checking using the MIMS drug database to assist clinicians with safety and quality
• Improved clinical workflows for nurses ordering and administering medications as defined within their scope of practice
• Improved recording of all patients’ medications, including those that may have been prescribed by another clinician or service
• Clarity of workflows, improved recording and documentation of medications requests and consolidated ordering for rural prescribing where medications are packed elsewhere and returned to a health service for supply to their patients

In addition to the above-mentioned V21.1 features, V21.2 introduces the following enhancements:

• My Health Record documents including Shared Health Summaries and Event Summaries created in offline mode will now be automatically uploaded to the patients My Health Record when the Communicare device is synchronised with the main Communicare server.
• The HealthTracker tool created by The George Institute has been embedded in Communicare. This functionality will be available to select beta site before being available for all customers.  If you are interested in being involved, please contact our service desk.
• Communicare can now receive results from imaging providers formatted as HTML as well as PDF.
• Enhancements made to secure messaging functionality to support future integration with other secure messaging vendors.

We acknowledge the V21 release is a significant release for our customers and it will require some preparation and training of your staff.  We have provided several resources to assist you in preparing for this upgrade, which are all accessible via Communicare’s User Portal.

Next Steps

To upgrade Communicare:  

• Log in to Communicare’s User Portal
• Review the Introduction to Communicare V21.1 brochure and complete the checklist, to determine what level of support you may require, if any
• If you need assistance to prepare for this upgrade and you don’t have access to Jira, please email communicare@health.telstra.com
• Please submit a ticket to the Communicare Service Desk to book in your upgrade via the Customer Portal

Support

As part of our commitment to help provide ongoing training and support we recommend our customers contact us, via the Customer Portal and Submit a ticket to the Communicare Service Desk, to discuss upgrade support options for this release.