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What's new in Bp Premier

All changes to Bp Premier Jade for each product release since Indigo SP2.

System Requirements

Windows operating system and hardware requirements for Bp Premier server and workstations.

Bp Premier Jade SP3 Release Notes

Bp Premier Jade SP3 release notes, including electronic prescribing enhancements, bug fixes, end of Microsoft extended support, and upgrade instructions.

Partner Network

In conjunction with the release of Jade, Best Practice Software is launching the Bp Partner Network, a program that formalises 's relationship with practices and technology vendors that develop integrated solutions with Bp's suite of software products.

What's New in Data Updates

Describes the contents of the current and previous monthly Bp Premier Data Update packages.

All known issues

Known issues for all versions of Bp Premier back to Summit, including workarounds and fix version where available.

COVID-19 Webinar FAQ

COVID-19 and Calm Efficiencies in your Practice webinar and FAQ from Bp Premier users, including some resources for practice managers from Western QLD PHN.

COVID-19 letter and Bp Comms templates

The COVID-19 non-medical clearance template can be used when patients request a letter clearing them of COVID-19. You can also modify exiting templates or create new ones to assist with treating COVID-19.

Download the latest data update

To take advantage of software changes designed to asssit with treating COVID-19, ensure you have downloaded the latest data updates.

Grouping COVID-19 patients in the appointment book

If your practice is required to manage a significant number of patients related to COVID-19, you may wish to differentiate these patients in the appointment book as a group so they can be managed separately to your regular patients.

COVID-19 Reasons for Visit and Diagnoses

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, new diagnoses and reasons for visit have been made availabel in Bp Premier.

COVID-19 database queries and reporting

You can use the COVID-19 At risk patients query to search for patients with an appointment booked in the next three months who fall into at-risk categories, or use reports to find COVID-19 related statistics at your practice.

Telehealth and telephone appointments

Use telehealth appointments to perform consultations remotely. Using telehealth consults minimises the possibility of at-risk patient contracting COVID-19, and ensures patients who suspect they may have contracted COVID-19 can continue to self-isolate while receiving medical advice.

Create an AutoFill clinical screening assessment

Save time during consults by creating an AutoFill clinical screening assessment in the patient record, for patients presenting with COVID-19 symptoms.

Add COVID-19 pathology to Favourites

Set up COVID-19 tests as favourites in the pathology request screen to quickly access them when requesting pathology.

COVID-19 patient education materials

Provide your patients with correct, up-to-date educational materials related to COVID-19. You can also import materials from resources like RACGP or Best Practice Software to distribute to patients, related to telehealth, for example.

COVID-19 clinical reminders

If you have performed consults with patients requiring COVID-19 tests, you can send them reminders to ensure they have organised to be tested.

COVID-19 bulk billing incentives for at risk patients

As of 20 April 2020, two new bulk billing incentive items have been added for COVID-19 at-risk patients. This article explains when and how to apply them.

System Requirements

Windows operating system and hardware requirements for Bp Premier server and workstations.

Download a program update from the Best Practice Resources page

Download the latest program update from the Best Practice Software website Resources page, and mount and run the ISO file.

Update the drug database

How to dowload and install the latest drug and data update from the Best Practice Software website.

End of support (sunset) for older versions

End of support or sunset schedule for older versions of Bp Premier.

Upgrade SQL Server for Bp Premier

Upgrade the edition or version of SQL Server on your Bp Premier server. Upgrade from an Express Edition to a full edition.

Updating JAVA on Bp Premier server and workstations

How to update the Java version on a Bp Premier server or workstation without affecting the Medicare Module installed.

Moving Bp Premier to a new server

Provides instructions on moving a Bp Premier database from one server machine to another.

System Requirements

Windows operating system and hardware requirements for Bp Premier server and workstations.

Best Practice Software End User License Agreement

The Best Practice Software End User License Agreement is accepted when you install Bp Premier for the first time or run a Program Upgrade. Click to view the agreement text.

Select the database to install

How to select and install the database during Bp Premier installation, and how to upgrade to a newer version of SQL Server or to a full edition from the Express edition.

Install Bp Premier Server

How to install a new Bp Premier server and SQL Server database.

Install a Bp Premier client

How to install a Bp Premier client after you have installed the server and database.

Install third-party software

How to install MediSecure, HealthLink, or HealthShare fact sheets after installing the Bp Premier server. Contact details for HealthLink are supplied if you need to install the HealthLink client.

Connect a workstation

How to connect a client to a Bp Premier server.

Optimise SQL Server Memory

Optimise the amount of memory (RAM) allocated to SQL Server database, based on the amount available on your server.

Troubleshoot installation

Troubleshoot common problems encountered when connecting to the server after installing Bp Premier for the first time, or to check that the SQL Server database has installed.

Troubleshoot general client connections

If you experience problems connecting a workstation to the server, this article can provide troubleshooting resolutions. It also describes how to update the registry entries for Bp Premier after moving a server, and troubleshoot terminal server connections.

Install Bp Premier silently

Install and upgrade Bp Premier in unattended mode. Your IT service provider can use the silent install option to roll out program and data updates to your practice network.

Uninstall Bp Premier and MSSQL

Completely uninstall Bp Premier and MS SQL from the server and workstations.

Resolving Slowness Issues

Troubleshoot slowness or response issues on your Bp Premier server or workstation.

Update or check your Bp Premier licence

Enter a new or updated licence key, and how Bp Premier checks your licence conditions against providers, including Allied Health and part-time providers.

Access the samples database

The Bp Premier 'samples' database is installed with Bp Premier and contains a sample dataset for training or familiarity purposes. Changes to the samples database do not affect the live database.

Set up the Clinical module

Describes the configuration activities required after installing Bp Premier for the first time that allow usage of clinical components like updating the drug database, setting up reminders, secure messaging, contacts, and templates.

Set up the Management module

Describes the list of configuration activities after installing Bp Premier for the first time that allow usage of the Management components like the appointment book, online claiming, billing, and practice details.

Setting up a multiple-location practice

Set up practices for multiple locations, including location names and ABNs, location letterheads, how to include location-specific template fields, appointment book layouts for a single location, and the importance of logging in to the correct location.

Set up Bp Service

Bp Service is a background Windows service for Bp Premier that manages results import, secure communication, and scheduled reminders and backups.

Get started with Best Health App

The Best Health App is a direct connection between your practice, and its patients. When your patients install the application on their mobile device, you can send various communications to them from within Bp Premier.

Provide site information to support

Describes how to provide Bp Premier Support with information about your site, including Site ID, SQL database version, and operating system. Also how to take a screen capture to provide to Support.

Conversion checklist

Provides a checklist for converting a database from other practice management software to Bp Premier, including a trial conversion and live conversion.

Merging Bp Premier Databases

Merge two Bp Premier databases into a single database. You may want to merge databases for various reasons, including consolidating two or more practices.

Convert clinical data to Bp Premier (MD3)

Instructions for using the Best Practice Software conversion utility to convert a third-party database to Bp Premier.

Converting from Locum

Instructions for using the Best Practice Software conversion utility to convert a Locum practice management database to Bp Premier.

Converting from Practix

Instructions for using the Best Practice Software conversion utility to convert a Practix practice management database to Bp Premier.

Converting from ProMedicus

Instructions for using the Best Practice Software conversion utility to convert a ProMedicus practice management database to Bp Premier.

Converting from other software with no conversion utility

Instructions for converting a database from practice managment software with no Best Practice Software conversion utility to Bp Premier.

Convert a seven day clinic

Converting a clinic that is open seven days or 24 hours requires more planning than a clinic with regular closed periods. You will have to record normal patient details using a number of methods while the conversion runs.

Cleaning up uncoded and free text data

Some screens allow 'free text' entry, which is usually not searchable and may be clinically ambiguous. Bp Premier offers a free text cleanup tool for Contact and document types, reminders, and free text diagnoses.

Link to a billing package

How to set up a link between Bp Premier and another software package, where the third-party software handles management functionality such as the appointment book and billing. Changes to demographic information are synchronised with Bp Premier.

Convert to Bp Premier from other billing software

If your practice uses third-party software to handle management functionality such as the appointment book and billing, this article describes how to shut down the previous billing software and migrate data and functionality to Bp Premier Management.

Link to Pracsoft

Set up a link between Bp Premier and PracSoft, where PracSoft handles management functionality such as the appointment book and billing. Changes to demographic information are synchronised with Bp Premier.

Link to E-Claims

How to set up a link between Bp Premier and E-claims, where the E-claims handles management functionality such as the appointment book and billing. Changes to demographic information are synchronised with Bp Premier.

Troubleshoot billing linking

Provides some solutions to problems that can be encountered when setting up linking to a third-party billing package.

Transfer patient demographics to PracSoft

How to bulk import patiet demographic data from Bp Premier into PracSoft, if your practice uses PracSoft for management functions such as billing and appointment book.

Export immunisation records to billing software

Describes how to export patient immunisation records from Bp Premier to a third-party software package, and set up a permanent link if immunisation records are regularly exported.

Medicare and DVA incentives

Describes the criteria under which Medicare and DVA incentives are automatically applied to patients in Bp Premier. You cannot add incentive items manually.

Set up Online Claiming for single Minor ID

How to set up Medicare and DVA online claiming (MAOL) if your practice only has a single Minor ID registered with Medicare, and how to install the Medicare Module if it was not installed during Bp Premier installation.

Set up Online Claiming for multiple Minor IDs

How to set up Medicare and DVA online claiming (MAOL) if your practice or organisation has more than one Minor ID registered with Medicare, and how to install the Medicare Module if it was not installed during Bp Premier installation.

Configuring Medicare Certificates

Set up new or renew Medicare site and PKI certificates.

Online claiming with proxy server

How to set up Bp Premier to process online claims if your practice uses a proxy server between the Bp Premier server and the internet.

Troubleshoot online claiming

Troubleshoot setting up Medicare online claiming, including problems with site and PKI certificates, Java, or the Bp Medicare Module.

Troubleshoot Medicare return codes

Troubleshoot error or return codes you may receive back from Medicare after submitting Medicare claims. A list of the most common error codes and their resolutions is provided.

Check Medicare certificates for expiry

Check expiry dates for Medicare site certificates and NASH certificates.

Export Medicare site certificates

How to install and use Medicare's PKI Certificate Manager to update your Medicare Site Certificates.

Where to find the forms to register practices and patients for the PIP Close the Gap copayment incentive, and indicate registration in Bp Premier.

Renew your NASH certificate

Update your NASH certificate when it expires.

Prepare your practice for eHealth

How to prepare your practice for My Health Record, including registering with the HI service, obtaining HPI-O and HPI-I numbers, and the PKI certificate types you need to install.

Configure Bp Premier for My Health Record

How to set up all necessary components for Bp Premier to use My Health Record online, including: recording HPI numbers, importing security certificates, and setting up user permissions and preferences.

Troubleshoot My Health Record

Troubleshoot common problems encountered while setting up and accessing My Health Record, including certfiicate import, HI lookup, and problems uploading or viewing MHR documents.

Troubleshoot site and NASH certificate issues

Troubleshoot issues connecting to the Health Identifier (HI) service to use My Health Record.

Assist a patient with My Health Record registration

How to assist a patient with registering for My Health Record, if a patient is unable to register themselves.

What can you claim with Tyro?

Key MBS and DVA items that cannot be processed through Medicare Easyclaim.

Configure Tyro

How to install the Tyro Terminal Adapter and sofware, and set up Tyro details and Merchant IDs in Bp Premier. The article also describes the payment and claim options available through Tyro, including Integrated Medicare Easyclaim.

Configure Tyro for Direct Billing

Set up Tyro to process Direct Bill accounts.

Set up a messaging provider

How to set up a messaging provider service for secure communication of clinical data and documents between Bp Premier and third parties.

Install Argus

How to install Argus during or after a Bp Premier installation. You will be prompted to set up Argus the first time an administrator logs into Bp Premier.

HealthLink Online forms

How to set up access to HealthLink SmartForms for the first time or after an upgrade, and how to open and submit Smartforms in the word processor.

Set up pathology and radiology

All the steps required to set up Bp Premier to use a secure messaging provider for sending pathology and radioloy requests, including provider preferences and supported formats (PIT, HL7).

Set up a messaging provider

How to set up a messaging provider service for secure communication of clinical data and documents between Bp Premier and third parties.

Set up Pathology and Radiology Results Import

How to set up automatic pathology or radiology results import from a laboratory into Bp Premier. This article also describes how results are imported and redirected to the provider Inbox, and how to set up results acknowledgements.

Troubleshoot importing results

Troubleshoot importing results automatically from a pathology or imaging lab.

Add a pathology or imaging lab

Create a Bp Premier Contact with a category of 'Pathology Provider' to represent a pathology lab.

Set up pathology request forms

Bp Premier supplies a default pathology request form, but you can create your own pathology form layout if a laboratory uses preprinted stationery for their request forms.

Set up radiology forms

Bp Premier does not supply a default radiology request form. You must create a custom radiology form layout for each laboratory with unique stationery.

Redirect incoming reports to another provider

Incoming reports can be redirected from one provider to another if required. An example of when this functionality could be useful would be if a provider were to go on leave, and someone else was responsible for their incoming reports in their absence.

Set up appointment book sessions and holidays

An appointment book session is a period during which a provider is able to take appointments and provide consultations, including 'on the day' or reserved appointment blocks. Sessions can be used as part of a rolling roster. Bp Premier provides a standard set of appointment types, but practices can also create their own types.

Create an Appointment Book layout

A layout is a user or user group. When you apply a layout to the appointment book, only bookings for the selected users will be shown or can be made. For example, you might have a layout that includes all providers, or a layout for each provider.

Add an appointment type

Appointment book types tell the user what should be booked in that slot, as well as set the default appointment length and icon.

Add a new patient

How to create a new patient record from the appointment book or patient search, including confidentiality, online Medicare and HI verification, family grouping, and marking a patient inactive or deceased.

Frequently asked questions about the patient demographic

FAQs from users about the patient demographic screen, including confidentiality, usual doctor, birth sex and gender identity, and how to audit changes to the patient's demographic record.

Add a new patient

Mark patients as inactive or deceased

Mark patients as deceased or inactivate, if a patient has not attended your practice in some time. Run a database search for duplicate or inactive patients and mark the patients in bulk as inactive.

Add, update, or deactivate a user

Add a new user to Bp Premier, including user permissions, user preferences, password changes, and deactivation, if staff leave a practice.

Add a new contact

Add an organisation, provider, or any individual to the Bp Premier contacts list.

Add a pathology or imaging lab

Create a Bp Premier Contact with a category of 'Pathology Provider' to represent a pathology lab.

HealthLink Directory

Search HealthLink's online directory from the word processor for referrals or health providers. Synchronise directory providers details with your local address book contacts.

HealthShare Referrals Directory

Search HealthShare's online directory for referrals or health providers from the word processor.

Frequently asked questions about Bp Comms

FAQs from our users about Bp Comms in general, including patient consent and consent forms, searching for patients who have and have not consent, best practices for message templates, and how to manage 'health awareness' communications and patient opt-out.

Frequently asked questions about Bp Comms Consent

This articles explains how consent to receive SMS and App messages for patients is recorded, and contains FAQs and options for managing SMS consent. Included are the Bulk SMS Consent Update tool and a sample consent form.

Top up Bp Comms Credit

A Bp Comms credit code contains a dollar amount that can be used for sending both Best Health App and SMS messages. Learn how to enter credit and understand how much credit you have remaining.

Get started with Bp Comms

Walks users through the end to end process of setting up Bp Comms, including patient consent, enrolling patients for SMS and App, message templates, and sending mail merge and single messages to patients from everywhere in Bp Premier.

Get started with Best Health App

Set up Bp Comms

Set up Bp Comms for clinical and appointment reminders, mail merges, contact notes, and all other patient-practice communications. Also how to top up your Bp Comms credit.

Set Bp Comms Consent for patients

Indicate patient consent for electronic communications methods from Bp Premier, including the types of communications that a patient would like to receive. You can attach signed consent to a patient demographics.

Bp Comms templates

Set up message templates for all SMS message types sent from your practice, such as clinical and appointment reminders, results receipt, patient education, and mail merges from a database search.

Add contact reasons

Add contact reasons to indicate why the practice contacted a patient.

Set up an appointment reminder schedule

Set up a Bp Comms appointment reminder schedule to send out appointment reminders without manual intervention, like an overnight SMS reminder for the next day's appointments.

Set up Bp Messaging Service

The Best Practice Messaging Service is used to manage Bp Comms communications between Bp Premier and external gateways.

Setting up printing and user printing preferences

How to set up page and print parameters for the word processor, including margins, page orientation, default fonts, and how to print on terminal servers.

Create a word processor template

A Bp Premier template is like any other word processor template: a 'starter' document that includes formatting, tables, images, a header and body, and the inclusion of data extracted from the system or patient record.

Create an advanced template

An advanced word processor template allows you to include custom fields. A custom field prompts the document author for information when the template is used to create a new document. This information is often real-time information that cannot be extracted from a patient record.

Setting up a multiple-location practice

Available HealthLink Forms

Lists the forms available through Bp Premier's integration with HealthLink smart forms, by state.

Importing a document template

How to import a document template into Bp Premier. Only some document types can be imported.

Troubleshooting templates

Troubleshoot common problems encountered working with template fields.

Working with letterheads

How to apply the practice letterhead to general templates, and create a custom letterhead that can be used by specific providers.

Set up printed label layouts

Labels can be printed from many functions, like a mail merge. You first need to define a label layout. You can also print to a label printer from Bp Premier.

Set up electronic prescribing

To begin using electronic prescribing (or eScripts) at your practice, you will first need to ensure you have correctly configured Bp Premier.

Set up eRx Script Exchange

Describes the system requirements before you can install eRx on the Bp Premier Server, and how to set up ErX in Bp Premier to take advantage of electronic prescriptions.

Change a patient's eRx consent

Change a patient's consent to send scripts by eRx.

Enable MediSecure

How to obtain an activation key for MediSecure and enable Medisecure for a Bp Premier provider.

Set up drug sheet layouts

How to define a layout for patient drug sheets (also called medication schedules or medication summaries). Several templates are available for use or customization. Drug sheets layouts are defined for the whole practice, not specific users.

Create a drug combination

How to create a custom combination of drugs with doses, so that the combination can be prescribed as a group.

Create a custom preparation

How to define and prescribe a custom preparation for compounding.

Rural bulk billing incentive changes from 1 January 2020

On the 1 January 2020, classification rules for bulk billing rural patient's changed. If this change affected your practice, follow these steps to ensure you are claiming the right incentive from Medicare.

Create non-MBS fees and schedules

How to create chargeable items (custom fees, practice fees) at your practice. A schedule can group fees and apply default calculations.

Set up bank and drawer names

How to define bank and drawer names to make cheque payments easier.

Connect a medical device

How to integrate a medical device, such as a blood pressure reader or spirometry machine, with Bp Premier so that the device can be accessed from the patient record. The article also describes how to configure Windows to open ECG files in a native viewer.

HealthLink Online forms

How to set up access to HealthLink SmartForms for the first time or after an upgrade, and how to open and submit Smartforms in the word processor.

Bp Premier Reporting Tool

The Bp Premier nKPI Reporting Utility records and submits national Key Performance Indicator data collected on Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander patients to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Data from participating practices forms part of the annual report on Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander primary health care.

PEN CAT

PEN CS Clinical Audit Tool (CAT) is a tool for extracting general practice clinical and billing data. You can install and configure the CAT to analyse Bp Premier data.

MEDrefer

How to activate MedRefer for Bp Premier and send and track referrals through the MedRefer service. You can also change the polling frequency.

Accessing Healthshare fact sheets

How to search, suggest, and email Healthshare Fact Sheets from the patient record.

medEbridge

How to set up, request, and process UHG insurance reports through medEbridge, including changing the polling frequency and troubleshooting using the Windows Event Viewer.

MediTracker

How to install Precedence Health Care's MediTracker connector to share Bp Premier patient data with the MediTracker app. The article also includes FAQs on what is shared between Bp Premier and MediTracker.

3DA Clinic

3D Anatomica is an Australian medical media company with strengths in the visual interpretation of disease and health management techniques.

NPS Radar

How to enable NPS Radar alerts when prescribing, and view NPS RADAR documents and patient information leaflets from the patient record.

Health Care Homes

Bp Premier supports the Department of Health's Health Care Homes initiative. Record a patient's HCH tier in the patient demographics, and run a Health Care Homes report to view providers against services billed.

BPAC Clinical Solutions

Open the BPAC decision support tool using the SeNT service from the patient record.

Telehealth appointments

Book telehealth appointments offered by a third-party provider.

Strata Health single signon

Bp Premier has integrated with Strata Health Solutions' PRISM system for managing and matching clinical resources to patient needs. GPs can access PRISM from a browser within the Bp Premier software using their Bp Premier credentials, without the need to log in again. Some initial configuration is required.

Cubiko

Cubiko is a busines intelligence tool that can integrate with Bp Premier.

Pryzm Data Extraction Tool

The Pryzm Data Extraction functionality in the Bp Premier Reporting Tool extracts information on possible inherited and rare diseases from clinical data and correspondence for practices working with Pryzm Health.

PIP QI Reporting

The Bp Premier Reporting tool extracts data for use in the Practice Incentives Program - Quality Improvement (PIP QI).

Configure WhiteCoat

How to configure Bp Premier to work with Whitecoat functionality.

Configure a Patient to Use with Whitecoat Card Not Present

Set up a patient to use Whitecoat Card Not Present functionality.

Bp Comms templates

Set up message templates for all SMS message types sent from your practice, such as clinical and appointment reminders, results receipt, patient education, and mail merges from a database search.

Set up reminder reasons and defaults

How to set defaults for the Bp Premier Reminders workflow, including defining Reminder Reasons, cleaning up free text entries, and how reminders are sent out by default.

Create a reminder letter template

How to create a template for Reminder letters. You can create a generic template used for all reminders, or create specific templates that are different for each reminder type. Your staff should know when to use which reminder template.

Set up an appointment reminder schedule

Set up a Bp Comms appointment reminder schedule to send out appointment reminders without manual intervention, like an overnight SMS reminder for the next day's appointments.

Add, update, or deactivate a user

Add a new user to Bp Premier, including user permissions, user preferences, password changes, and deactivation, if staff leave a practice.

User Permissions

A reference for the key user permissions and which practice roles normally require which permissions.

Setting user preferences

Describes all of the preferences that users can set to personalise their Bp Premier experience.

Set up users to run reports

Permission to run reports can be granted down to the level of individual reports. You can also restrict the data pool for reporting by provider and location.

How to set up a fingerprint scanner to log in a Bp Premier user.

Create and manage actions

Bp Premier Actions capture an activity that needs to be carried out by practice staff, such as a future vaccination, checking results, or a health assessment. You can view outstanding actions for a single patient or the entire practice.

Using the To Do List

The To Do list is a tool for practice staff to set reminders for themselves. To Do items can be linked to patients. A user's To Do list is displayed whenever he or she logs in to Bp Premier.

Set a daily message

The daily message is a practice-wide communication displayed on the Appointment Book on all workstations, for all users.

Send internal messages

Bp Premier offers an internal messaging service for practice communication between users and user groups. When a user logs in, new messages are listed in a popup.

After hours telehealth consults

Sometimes telehealth or other consults are recorded after the day. This article shows you how to invoice and pay backdated consults.

COVID-19 Webinar FAQ

COVID-19 and Calm Efficiencies in your Practice webinar and FAQ from Bp Premier users, including some resources for practice managers from Western QLD PHN.

COVID-19 letter and Bp Comms templates

Download the latest data update

To take advantage of software changes designed to asssit with treating COVID-19, ensure you have downloaded the latest data updates.

Grouping COVID-19 patients in the appointment book

COVID-19 Reasons for Visit and Diagnoses

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, new diagnoses and reasons for visit have been made availabel in Bp Premier.

COVID-19 database queries and reporting

Telehealth and telephone appointments

Create an AutoFill clinical screening assessment

Save time during consults by creating an AutoFill clinical screening assessment in the patient record, for patients presenting with COVID-19 symptoms.

Add COVID-19 pathology to Favourites

Set up COVID-19 tests as favourites in the pathology request screen to quickly access them when requesting pathology.

COVID-19 patient education materials

COVID-19 clinical reminders

If you have performed consults with patients requiring COVID-19 tests, you can send them reminders to ensure they have organised to be tested.

COVID-19 bulk billing incentives for at risk patients

As of 20 April 2020, two new bulk billing incentive items have been added for COVID-19 at-risk patients. This article explains when and how to apply them.

Updates for managing COVID-19

Provides links to MBS and RACGP resources on COVID-19 or Coronavirus, some guidance on integrated and non-integrated telehealth and telephone consults, and advice on managing groups of COVID-19 patients.

Recording Today's Notes

How to record and manage consultation notes for a patient, including keyboard and autocomplete shortcuts for common terms, and how to record past history items.

Frequently asked questions about the patient record

FAQs about recording notes in the patient record, including confidentiality, and editing and backdating past visits.

Preview notes, start, and finalise a visit

Describes the Appointment Book components that are normally used by providers, after the patient has been arrived by reception. This generally involves starting and finalising the consultation from the patient record.

After hours telehealth consults

Sometimes telehealth or other consults are recorded after the day. This article shows you how to invoice and pay backdated consults.

Supported Clinical Coding Systems

Describes the clinical coding systems used when recording diagnoses in the clinical record.

Social and family history

From the patient record, you can record a patient's family, social, occupational, alcohol, and tobacco or smoking history.

Understanding confidentiality and patient notes

How to set confidential access to a patient's record, and how to set the emergency access password for a practice.

Search past visits

How to search for and view notes from past visits in the patient record.

Delete or amend past visit notes

Delete past visits if notes were recorded for the wrong patient. Amend patient notes on the same day, or append notes after 24 hours.

Blood Group

How to record a patient's blood type.

Print graphs from observations

Bp Premier can create graphs from observation values or atomised values from investigation reports.

Obstetric and antenatal visits

How to record a pregnancy and prior obstetric details for a patient and monitor the antenatal cycle. You can also view all current pregnant patients from the main menu.

Import, scan, or move documents into a patient record

How to scan documents in to a patient record, and move documents between sections in the patient record.

Bp Comms in the patient record

Send SMS messages from the patient record, or review and create contact notes for Correspondence, Investigations, Images, and Primary Care.

Import bulk clinical documents

The Bulk Document Import utility (BDI) imports multiple document files in all popular formats (images, PDF, .doc and .docx, RTF, TXT, and HTML), and imports scanned documents directly from a network scanner or digital camera. Once scanned or imported, you can allocate documents to a provider Inbox, or into the Correspondence in, Correspondence Out, or Clinical images sections of a patient record.

Available HealthLink Forms

Lists the forms available through Bp Premier's integration with HealthLink smart forms, by state.

Enabling preventative health notifications

Bp Premier will display preventative health reminders in a patient's record based on demographic and clinical history. You can turn specific notifications on and off for a patient.

Available clinical functions

Clinical tools available include: BMI calculator, Blood pressure, cardiovascular, and diabetes risk assessments, INR manager, K10, travel medication schedule, Mini Mental State and geriatric depression assessments, Edinburgh PND, and AUDIT-C alcohol risk assessment.

Diabetes register

The Bp Premier Diabetes register shows information on all patients with a diagnosis of Diabetes recorded.

Diabetes risk assessment tool

Bp Premier includes the AUSDRISK assessment tool for Type 2 Diabetes.

Patient Education material

The Patient Education Materials viewer allows you to print take-home information for patients, from multiple research sources including MIMS, NPS, Beyond Blue, Dementia Australia, and John Murtagh.

3DA Clinic

3D Anatomica is an Australian medical media company with strengths in the visual interpretation of disease and health management techniques.

Health Care Homes

Set ADF status and discharge assessment

A patient's ADF status is recorded in the patient's occupational history. Bp Premier also provides a post-discharge assessment template.

Create an asthma action plan for a patient

Bp Premier includes action plans for the management of chronic asthma.

Diabetes Cycle of Care

The Diabetes Cycle of Care tool provides a scheduled plan for providers and patients to manage diabetes.

Create care plans

Care plans allow GPs to record related information and set goals and tasks in consultation with the patient to manage chronic diseases. All elements of a care plan, including goals, tasks, contacts, and layout can be customised.

Create an EPC Care Plan template

A Care Plan Template is a care plan preloaded with problems, goals, tasks, and provider contacts that you can assign to a patient and modify. Templates can be imported and exported.

Dementia assessment tool

Bp Premier offers a dementia assessment tool available for patients over 70 years of age. The tool was developed with the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre of UNSW.

Health assessment tool

Bp Premier's health assessment tool is a broad health data collection and analysis tool for evaluating patient health. The tool is available to patients based on demographic data including age and ethnicity.

Conduct a medication review

The medication review tool identifies potential problems with a patient's medications and set actions to manage dosages, administration, and ongoing health. The tool is available based on a patient's current and recent Rx.

Add a Clinical Reminder to a patient

Add a clinical reminder to a patient, or edit the appointment associated with a clinical reminder.

Send clinical reminders

Send Bp Comms clinical reminders.

Print a reminders list

You can print a clinical reminders list, or reprint a reminder run. You can also set the columns shown on the printed reminders list.

Follow up sent reminders

Follow up clinically significant reminders sent through Bp Comms messaging.

Practices with multiple Prescription Exchange Services

Describes the support for electronic prescribing and Real Time Prescription Monitoring in Bp Premier for practices with providers who use both eRx and MediSecure Prescription Exchange Services.

Frequently Asked Questions from our Electronic Prescribing Masterclasses

This article presents the questions asked by Bp Premier users from all Australian states and territories during the Electronic Prescribing Masterclass webinars delivered by Best Practice Software starting 26 May 2020.

Electronic prescribing

How to provide a patient with an electronic prescription (or eScript), as well as how to cancel, resend, preview and amend an eScript.

Add or cease Rx

How to add a prescription to a patient's record, and edit an existing prescription.

Once only and long term medication

Make sure you select the correct repeat option when Adding Rx to a patient record.

Print stored Rx

Prescriptions can be stored instead of printed immediately. This article describes how to search for and print stored prescriptions for a patient or the whole practice.

Allergies and reactions

How to record a patient's allergies and adverse drug reactions. Bp Premier will check allergies and reactions when medications are prescribed.

Past Rx and Ceased Rx

How to view a patient's past and ceased prescriptions from the patient record, and how to represcribe, reprint, and open the visit for a past prescription.

Look up a prescription

Look up a prescription if you know the script ID.

Medication marked prn and template fields

Medications marked 'p.r.n' are not considered regular medications in the context of care plans and will not populate some template fields.

Prescribe on behalf of

A user can issue prescriptions on behalf of a provider who has a prescriber number.

SafeScript

SafeScript is a clinical tool available to Victorian practices that can inform prescription of high-risk medicines and help prevent patient misuse.

Printing a patient's medication schedule

Print a patient's medication schedule to layouts including generic, Compact Business Systems, PSH, or NIMC (GP e-version).

Print a National In-patient Medication Chart

You can print medication charts from Bp Premier in the NIMC (or GP e-version) format.

Request pathology or radiology

How to submit a radiology or pathology request from the patient record, including setting up favourite test lists and custom test reasons.

Managing Pathology and Radiology Results

The pathology and radiology results management process, from auto-allocation, actioning results in the Provider Inbox, and following up results from the Follow Up Inbox, and how to audit the patient contact trail.

Troubleshoot importing results

Troubleshoot importing results automatically from a pathology or imaging lab.

E-order pathology or radiology

Bp Premier offers e-Ordering for pathology and radiology labs that accept e-orders. Pathology labs require a NATA code. Patients can consent to upload e-order investigations to their My Health Record.

Cervical Smears

Cervical screen or pap smear investigations are requested like any pathology request, but added to the Cervical Smears page of the patient record. Practice staff can also view and add cervical screening history outside of the patient record.

Clear outstanding requests

As part of managing incoming results, you can manually mark requests as 'received' for a single patient or the entire practice. This clears a request from any outstanding lists.

Sending an electronic referral

eReferrals are sent from a patient record using the word processor. You can send referrals in the CDA format, if the service provider accepts the format; otherwise the default format for the provider is used.

Follow up eReferrals

The eReferral Followup screen shows information on referrals sent electronically that have not been acknowledged. You need to set up eReferral acknowledgements to use this screen.

Validate Health Identifiers

How to look up the Health Identifier service and validate HI numbers for a single patient or multiple patients.

Create a Shared Health Summary

How to create a Shared Health Summary from a patient record and upload to My Health Record. A Health Summary includes current medications, adverse drug reactions, past medical history, and immunisations.

Create an Event Summary

How to create an Event Summary from a patient record and upload to My Health Record, including how to modify and delete an uploaded document.

Manage My Health Record documents

Manage documents shared between My Health Record and the patient record in Bp Premier from the My Health Record home screen. Save uploaded documents to the patient record.

Prescription and Dispense View

How to use My Health Record's Prescription and Dispense View to manage a patient's current and past Rx, and prescribe and represcribe medication. The Prescription and Dispense View relies on the National Prescribing and Dispense Repository (NPDR).

Pathology and imaging report views

Use My Health Record's Pathology and Radiology Report Views to view pathology investigation results and diagnostic images uploaded to a patient's My Health Record by laboratories and other providers.

Health Identifier lookup history

View the lookup history, audit trail, and transaction error history for a patient's Health Identifier.

Record immunisation batch numbers

Bp Premier can record registered batch numbers for vaccination programs for selection when administering a vaccine. You can set a default batch number for the influenza vaccination used by your practice.

Record immunisations

Immunisations and vaccinations for patients are recorded from the patient record, such as HPV, Influenza, Hep B, and the Australian childhood vaccination schedule.

Send immunisation records to AIR

All immunisation data records for whole of life must be submitted electronically or in paper format to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR). This article describes how to do both, and review submitted records.

Get started with Best Health App

Send health information to a patient's app

Send a health summary, MIMS consumer information, or patient education leaflets to a patient's Best Health App.

Best Health App Masterclass FAQ

Questions and answers from the Masterclasses Navigating Best Health: An Introduction to Bp's New Patient App Masterclass and Patient Communications and using Bp Comms.

Frequently asked questions about Bp Comms Consent

Set Bp Comms Consent for patients

Patient age and SMS consent

Search for patients aged 15 and 16 at your practice who have consented to receive SMS messages, and have their own phone number or share a phone number with family. Your practice will have its own policies for handling consent for older children.

Enrol a phone number for BP Comms FAQ

FAQs on enrolling a phone number for Bp Comms, including third-party software access to a patient's phone number, and sharing a phone number.

Understanding contact notes

Contact notes record instances where a practice has contacted or attempted to contact a patient. For example, contact notes can record an audit trail of attempts to contact a patient after investigation results have been reviewed from the Followup Inbox.

Add contact reasons

Add contact reasons to indicate why the practice contacted a patient.

Add and review contact notes

Add a contact note, review notes and sent messages, check for messages that weren't successful, and resend failed messages.

Check for patient replies to contact notes

Check for replies to appointment reminder contact notes.

Get started with Bp Comms

Send Bp Comms appointment reminders

Send Bp Comms appointment reminders by SMS or Best Health App.

Check appointment reminder replies

Check for replies to Bp Comms SMS appointment reminders.

Send clinical reminders

Send Bp Comms clinical reminders.

Send clinical comunications

Send communications on clinical issues that aren't a regular checkup, such as following up pathology and radiology results.

Send health awareness communications

Send communications to patients regarding health awareness.

Keyboard shortcuts

Lists the keyboard shortcuts available from the main screen, appointment book, waiting room, and patient record.

Autofills for Today's Notes and the Word Processor

Use Autofill shortcuts in Today's Notes and word processor documents to shortcut text entry. You can create your own Autofill shortcuts.

Creating a document from a template

How to create a document from a template. You can also create a list of Favorite templates, and create an Action to complete a draft document.

System word processor templates

Customise the system word processor templates to suit your practice.

HealthLink Directory

Search HealthLink's online directory from the word processor for referrals or health providers. Synchronise directory providers details with your local address book contacts.

HealthShare Referrals Directory

Search HealthShare's online directory for referrals or health providers from the word processor.

Using the Document Viewer

The Document Viewer is used for viewing PDF, Microsoft Word, Images and other files within Bp Premier.

Run a mail merge

You can run a mail merge from several functions within Bp Premier, including a database search, reminders, diabetes register, and the inbox followup. Copies of the mail merge letter can be automatically added to a patient record.

Setting up Bp Premier to use email

How to send and receive emails from Bp Premier. You can use a single email address for the practice, email addresses for single users, or both.

Send emails from Bp Premier

How to send an email from the word processor, user address, or practice email address.

Encrypt e-mail messages from Bp Premier

If your practice sends emails from Bp Premier, you can set up PKI certificates for users and contacts for secure emailing.

After hours telehealth consults

Sometimes telehealth or other consults are recorded after the day. This article shows you how to invoice and pay backdated consults.

COVID-19 Webinar FAQ

COVID-19 and Calm Efficiencies in your Practice webinar and FAQ from Bp Premier users, including some resources for practice managers from Western QLD PHN.

COVID-19 letter and Bp Comms templates

Download the latest data update

To take advantage of software changes designed to asssit with treating COVID-19, ensure you have downloaded the latest data updates.

Grouping COVID-19 patients in the appointment book

COVID-19 Reasons for Visit and Diagnoses

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, new diagnoses and reasons for visit have been made availabel in Bp Premier.

COVID-19 database queries and reporting

Telehealth and telephone appointments

Create an AutoFill clinical screening assessment

Save time during consults by creating an AutoFill clinical screening assessment in the patient record, for patients presenting with COVID-19 symptoms.

Add COVID-19 pathology to Favourites

Set up COVID-19 tests as favourites in the pathology request screen to quickly access them when requesting pathology.

COVID-19 patient education materials

COVID-19 clinical reminders

If you have performed consults with patients requiring COVID-19 tests, you can send them reminders to ensure they have organised to be tested.

COVID-19 bulk billing incentives for at risk patients

As of 20 April 2020, two new bulk billing incentive items have been added for COVID-19 at-risk patients. This article explains when and how to apply them.

Switching from old to new reports

Bp Premier management functionality changed significantly for the Lava release. This article describes the new management reports available, and which pre-Lava reports they most closely match.

Switching to new reports FAQ

Frequently asked questions from Bp Premier users regarding the switch to new management reports from older pre-Lava financial and disbursement reports, including a link to the webinar.

Set up users to run reports

Permission to run reports can be granted down to the level of individual reports. You can also restrict the data pool for reporting by provider and location.

Get started with reporting

Understand which reports to run, what the report parameters mean, and how to use reports to pay providers.

Management Report Reference

Provides a description of key reports used by a practice, such as Services and Payment reports used for provider sdisbursement.

Count Health Summary Uploads

Use Bp Premier's Shared Health Summary upload counts to assist in PIP eHealth reporting.

Appointment Statistics

The appointment statistics reports show the number of appointments per provider per month at your practice, and the number of appointments by type. There are two appointment statistics reports available - one for combined locations, and one for individual locations.

Patient Contact and Billing Statistics

The Patient Contact and Billing Statistics reports provides statistics on patient contact hours, count of services performed, average fee per hour, services per hour and fee per service, plus dollar values of fees billed.

Historical Reports

Historical reports have been provided to allow a practice to run reports on invoice and payment data prior to the practice's upgrade to the Lava version. After upgrading, use the new management reports, which account for adjustment types introduced in Lava.

Referral Reports

The referral reports provide a list of referrals that have been recorded in the system. The report will show ‘current’ referrals within the specified date range.

Online Claiming

Reports on online claiming batches submitted.

Services

Service reports can be used for provider disbursement if you pay your providers based on services performed.

Payments

Reports for payments made to a practice, broken down by account type, payment method, and service date. All reports include service details.

Transactions

Transactions reports list both service and payment information. They can be used for provider disbursement if you pay your providers both by services performed and payments received.

Banking

Reports for banking batches created, daily takings, held accounts, and reversed payments and bounced cheques.

Debtor

Reports on debtors at an aging date. Reports can be exported to MS Excel.

Deposits and Payment Reversal reports

Reports showing deposits used to pay off invoices, and reversed payments, within the date range.

Audit reports

Reports for cancelled and written off services, and reversed payments and bounced cheques.

Clinician

Reports on uploads to My Health Record, incoming referrals, and vaccines given.

Patients

New Patient Added report.

Appointments

Reports for viewing appointments in a date range.

Administrative

Administrative reports for vewing custom practice fees, appointment reminder status, and provider days away from practice.

Updates for managing COVID-19

What do the appointment statuses mean?

Appointment book statues, especially With Doctor, At Billing, Paid, and Invoiced, help your staff tell where in the appointment book workflow an appointment is up to, and which appointments need payment and closing off.

Book or update an appointment

Book an appointment for a new or existing patient, edit a current appointment, or view a patient's appointment history.

Book a recurring appointment

Book and edit recurring appointments.

Recall appointments

Recall appointments can be made for patients who have received clinically significant results or otherwise need to be recalled to the practice outside of a reminder cycle. Recalls can only be cancelled by certain user types.

Find, move, or cancel an appointment

Search for past or future appointments, move or cancel an appointment, and view an audit trail of users who have updated an appointment.

Rebook a patient from the cancellation list

The Cancellation List contains patients who have a future booking, but have indicated they would like to be seen earlier if a slot is made available. You can rebook a free appointment for any patient in the Cancellation List.

Update a doctor's availability

Update the appointment book for a user or users to block out one or more slots as unavailable.

Arrive a patient

Check a patient's Medicare details when they arrive and indicate in the appointment book that the patient is ready to see the provider.

Resolve uncompleted appointments

Look up and resolve unfinished appointments so they are not lost in the appointment book history.

Print or export an appointment list

Print an appointment list or day sheet, or export an appointment list to file.

Paying accounts across multiple locations

Practice staff who take payments must ensure they select the correct location from the Login screen when they log in to start their Bp Premier session.

Create an account from an appointment

Create an account for a patient if the patient has seen the doctor and is paying their account after the consultation.

Pay a patient account

Pay a patient's account after the patient has seen the doctor.

Pay and claim with Tyro

How to process payments and claims through a Tyro terminal.

Pay and claim with Whitecoat

Pay an account using Whitecoat functionality.

Find an invoice or cheque

How to search for invoices by invoice or voucher number, and search for cheques by cheque number. You can also record a cheque as bounced.

View debtors

The Debtor list shows all outstanding accounts for patients and third parties. It does not include accounts billed to Medicare or DVA. You can print outstanding statements per payee or per provider.

Create a simple account

A simple account covers one or more services provided on the same day. You can apply restriction codes or Medicare override codes to account items.

Create a complex account

A complex account covers one or more services provided over different dates. Complex accounts may need to be created to 'bundle' services into one account, for example, to be paid by an organisation such as an employer, insurer, or head of family. You can apply restriction codes or Medicare override codes to account items.

Held Accounts

A held account is a record that a patient needs to be billed, but you are not yet sure what services should be included on the invoice. For example, a patient has a biopsy performed on their arm which is sent away to pathology. Use a held account to keep a bookmark of the account and add the services when the pathology results are received.

Invoice referrals

If the Provider and the MBS item you are using requires a referral, the Referral details field will appear in the account details screen.

Restriction codes

Adding a restriction code in the Account Item window provides additional information that will prevent a claim containing multiple similar items from being rejected by Medicare

Process a payment

How to process payments for regular accounts and bulk payments for complex invoices. Bulk payments are useful for processing non-standard invoices such as those from hospitals for insurance companies.

Process a bulk payment

Process payments for account holders with many invoices that need settling, like an insurer or hospital. The Bulk Payment screen is easier to make adjustments to services from.

Pay with or refund a deposit

Deposits allow your practice to take money in advance as payment for future services, or as holding fee for equipment hire, for example. You can record and adjust a deposit (until the deposit is banked), and allocate a deposit to pay or part-pay and invoice.

Using the Patient Billing History

Describes the functionality available from the Patient Billing History, which is the main screen used to create new acounts, and review and correct paid accounts.

Correct an account or payment

You can adjust or cancel an unpaid account. If an account has been paid or banked, you can only make simple adjustments, or you must reverse the payment and adjust the original account.

Correct an account in error

How to correct a number of common account creation errors, including an incorrect account owner, wrong payment type, and adding an account to the wrong banking batch.

Correct a payment or paid account

Reverse or adjust a payment before the payment is banked.

Correct a banked payment

How to correct errors on paid accounts after payments have been reconciled and banked, including payments to the wrong invoice, payments to the wrong patient, and incorrect payment amounts.

Understanding adjustments

An overview of the Adjustments and Deposits feature of Bp Premier.

Record a bounced cheque

How to record a bounced cheque, and flow the payment correction through to any invoices paid by the bounced cheque.

View the Tyro transaction history

How to view the transaction history for a Tyro terminal from Bp Premier.

Adjust a service direct billed through Tyro

Adjust a service that has been direct billed and processed through a Tyro terminal.

Cancel and refund Tyro payments

How to cancel a rebate and refund a payment made through Tyro.

Medicare card reader shortcuts

How to use your practice's Medicare card reader device as a shortcut to load patient details in the patient record, appointment book, and waiting room.

Troubleshoot Medicare return codes

Troubleshoot error or return codes you may receive back from Medicare after submitting Medicare claims. A list of the most common error codes and their resolutions is provided.

Online Claiming: Direct Bill

End to end walkthrough for direct bill batches, including batching, check for payments, service correction and claim resubmission, and troubleshooting.

Online Claiming: Patient Claims

End to end walkthrough for Tyro EasyClaims, including billing, check for payments, service correction and claim resubmission, and troubleshooting.

Online Claiming: EasyClaim and Tyro

End to end walkthrough for online patient claiming, including billing, service correction and claim resubmission, and troubleshooting.

Correct Medicare Online claim

How to correct and resubmit rejected Medicare claims for Medicare Online claims.

Correct a Direct Bill claim

Adjust and resubmit a direct bill (bulk bill) claim.

Create a Banking Batch

How to create a banking batch for reconciliation, including creating a Banking Details report that can be used when making bank deposits for the practice.

Banking

Reports for banking batches created, daily takings, held accounts, and reversed payments and bounced cheques.

Create an account for worker's compensation

How to create an account for single-organisation compensation (such as WorkCover) or schemes that involve multiple organisations including employers and insurers.

WorkCover QLD electronic invoicing

WorkCover Queensland (WorkCover) provides insurance cover to support workers who have been injured at work. Registered health providers submit invoices for payment by WorkCover for products and services provided to the injured workers.

Back up and restore Bp Premier

How to run a manual backup and restore of the Bp Premier database, and schedule regular backups.

Back up and restore the drug database

Back up the drug database automatically after a monthly drug update, or manually back up and restore the drug database for remote workstations.

Troubleshoot backups

How to troubleshoot some common issues encountered when backing up Bp Premier, including the location of the backup log files and if you should use compressed or uncompressed backups.

Download the Bp Premier database for remote use

How to download and synchronise a subset of patient records for use in a workstation disconnected from the Bp Premier server, for example, a consultation in a remote location or home visit.

Troubleshoot remote databases

How to troubleshoot common issues encountered when downloading and synchronising a remote database.

Supported Clinical Coding Systems

Describes the clinical coding systems used when recording diagnoses in the clinical record.

Searching the database

Bp Premier offers a tool for searching the database for patient records based on demographic and clinical filters you define. Searches can be used to run a mail merge, for example, or export a list of patients.

Access the database through the viewer account

The BPS 'viewer' account allows read-only access to the Bp Premier database. Administrators and third-party applications can use this account to view and access a subset of database data. You can also export table data to XML or text file.

Search for immunisations

This example shows how to search for patients who received a vaccination during a set time period, or have not received a vaccination by a specific age or for a length of time.

Search for patients with diabetes

This example shows how to search for patients with 'diabetes' in their current or past history, and how to search for patients by past medication.

Search by patient ID

Search the database for a specific Patient ID number.

Partner Network

Clinical integrations

Third-party software that integrates with Bp Premier. For example, telehealth apppointments, secure messaging, referral lookups, clinical audit tools, smart forms.

Connecting to the database by ODBC from Microsoft Excel

How to query the Bp Premier database using an ODBC connection. For Bp Premier integrators and administrators.

Approving third-party integration

When upgrading Bp Premier, or any time from Configuration > Database, you must approve all third-party integrations before an integration will be peritted to read from or write to the database.

Merge patient records

How to merge duplicate patient records. Merging is not easily reversed and should be carried out only by administrators or with the guidance of Bp Premier Support. Merging is affected by linking to a billing package.

Merge user records

The Merge User tool can merge Bp Premier user records. For example, you may have created multiple provider records to represent providers at different practice locations. You can only reverse a user merge by restoring the database.

Merging Bp Premier Databases

Merge two Bp Premier databases into a single database. You may want to merge databases for various reasons, including consolidating two or more practices.

Frequently asked questions on importing and exporting records

Frequently asked questions on importing and exporting patient records, and the Subpoena Tool, including exporting confidential information and which data can be imported.

Import bulk clinical documents

Subpoena Tool

The Subpeona tool allows your practice to export a patient record, or sections of a patient record, to print or file for legal purposes. Access to the tool is protected by user permission and the emergency access password.

Import patient records

Import single or bulk patient records that have been exported as XML files from a previous Bp Premier server. Make sure the patient does not already exist in the new database.

Export patient records

How to export patient demographic and clinical data for one or more patient records, or the entire database.

Import and export contacts

You can import and export contact records between Bp Premier servers. Contacts imported from an older version will contain blank entries in any new fields.

Export management data

How to export management data from Bp Premier to CSV file, including Services, Invoices, Payments, Paid Services, and Appointments.

Record Locking

Understand how Bp Premier locks database records to ensure database integrity. Record locking occurs on visits, appointments, invoices and payments.

Mark patients as inactive or deceased

Mark patients as deceased or inactivate, if a patient has not attended your practice in some time. Run a database search for duplicate or inactive patients and mark the patients in bulk as inactive.

Optimise SQL Server Memory

Optimise the amount of memory (RAM) allocated to SQL Server database, based on the amount available on your server.

Upgrade SQL Server for Bp Premier

Upgrade the edition or version of SQL Server on your Bp Premier server. Upgrade from an Express Edition to a full edition.

What utilities are available in Bp Premier?

Describes all of the utilities available from Bp Premier. Some utilities should only be run with the guidance of Best Practice Software Support.

Cleaning up uncoded and free text data

View deleted clinical data

Deleted clinical data is always retained. Administrators can view deleted data for a type of clinical data, or for a specific patient, which can be accessed from the main screen or from within the patient record. You can also export and recover deleted data from this utility.

Delete and recover records

In Bp Premier, you can delete and restore patient and user records. Patient records are deleted through the Patient list screen, and user records are deleted through the Users screen. Both patients and users can be restored through Bp Utilities.

Audit record changes and user activity

You can monitor all password changes and login activity in Bp Premier through the View security audit utility.

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Configuring Medicare Certificates

About Medicare Certificates

Choose the below scenario that relates to your requirement regarding configuring Medicare Certificates in Bp Premier:

You are a new Bp Premier practice and are setting up online claiming for the first time.
You are an existing Bp Premier practice and have set up online claiming, but you now need to renew your certificates.
You are an existing Bp Premier practice and have an existing online claiming store, but you need to create a new online claiming store.

Frequently asked questions

What Types of Certificates Are Issued by Human Services?

Several different certificates can be obtained from Human Services; the following are used by Bp Premier.

Certificate	Usage
PKI Site Certificate	Required for Online Claiming and My Health Record.
NASH Certificate	Used by My Health Record functionality.
Medicare Certificates	Used by Medicare to establish secure communications. These are supplied in the "C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS\MedicareCerts\" folder.

How Often Do I Need to Update my Certificates?

Human Services PKI certificates expire every 2 or 5 years. If your have the PKI Certificate Manager installed, the certificates should auto-update. To check certificate expiry:

Log in to Bp Premier and navigate to Setup > Configuration > Online claiming.
Click Check certificate expiry. Bp Premier displays the certificates and their expiry dates.

What If I Run into Problems with My Medicare Online Setup?

See Troubleshoot online claiming for more information.

What if my site certificates have been auto-updated on my server and I need to use them on other machines?

My Health Record functionality also uses site certificates. If you have auto-renewing certificates and you need your updated site certificate to update My Health Record:

Export the site certificate on the server. Export Medicare site certificates
Import the certificate on the server for my health. See Import Your Site Certificate.

What If I Have Existing Medicare Certificates Installed?

If you already installed Medicare certificates on your system and have received a new CD and PIC passphrase, there are a few additional actions to perform before installing the new certificates.

Install certificates at a new Bp Premier practice

The Human Services Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a required component of the integration between Bp Premier and Medicare Online. Contact Medicare eBusiness centre on 1800 700 199 to obtain the application forms to register for PKI and Medicare Australia Online. The Public Key Infrastructure works by utilising certificates which enable secure communication between your practice and Human Services computers.

Setting up a New Online Claiming Store

Follow these instructions to install new site certificates. These instructions must be performed by a user with Allow access on the Configuration permission. Perform these instructions on your server machine.

Create Certificate Store

Log in to Bp Premier and navigate to Setup > Configuration > Online claiming.
Click Change. The Path to certificate store screen appears.
Click the ellipse button [...] and browse to the path where you want to create your certificate store. This is typically C:\ProgramData\BPOnline.
Take a note of the store path as it is required later.
Click Save. Bp Premier will prompt that the certificate store does not exist and ask ‘Would you like to create one now?'
Click Yes to create the store. You are prompted for a password for the certificate store. This password MUST be the same as the password provided to you from Medicare with your certificates. This is called your Personal Identification Code (PIC).
NOTE Do not misplace this password. You are responsible for this password; Best Practice Software cannot retrieve this for you.

Import Medicare Certificates

Click Import Medicare certificate. The HeSA Certificates screen appears.
The Folder where certificates can be located field points to "C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS\MedicareCerts\" by default, navigate to this path if this is not selected. The window displays Medicare Australia certificates in that folder.
NOTE Do not use the certificates on the CD supplied from Medicare. You must use the certificates found in C:\Program Files\Best Practice Software\BPS\MedicareCerts\.
Work through the list selecting each certificate and clicking Attach. If the certificate is imported successfully, Bp Premier will display 'The certificate was successfully imported'.
Click Close to close the HeSA Certificates screen. Keep the Configuration screen open.

Install Site Certificates

The next steps require your Medicare practice certificates:

If you received your certificates on a CD, insert the CD into your computer.
If you download your certificates from the certificates Australia web site, ensure they are accessible from this computer.

Click Import site certificates. The HeSA Certificates screen appears.
Click Change folder, browse to the CD drive or the folder where your downloaded certificates are located and click OK. The HeSA Certificates screen displays any site certificates found in that location.
Select fac_encrypt.p12 and click Attach. A message will display showing if the certificate was successfully imported. Repeat for fac_sign.p12.
Click Close.
Click Check certificate expiry. The HeSA Certifcates screen appears.
There should be at least five items listed similar to those on the example above. Two should mention 'Medicare Australia’ in the Certificate owner column (these are Medicare Australia’s certificates) and two should mention the clinic name (in the example, 'Test Location Certificate 134').
Check that all the Expiry dates are future dates.
Press Cancel to return to the Configuration screen.
Press Save.

Install the PKI Certificate Manager on Your Server

The CD that contains the site certificates also contains an installation for the PKI Certificate Manager. Install this utility to ensure that your certificates auto-update. See the PKI website for more information on the PKI Certificate Manager.

Share Your Certificate Store Path

Share your certificate path store on your server so that all machines that utilise Medicare functionality can use the same certificates. Perform these steps on your server machine.

Open Windows file explorer and browse to your certificate path store. This was noted previously when importing certificates and is typically C:\ProgramData\BPOnline.
Share the certificate store path so that it is visible to other machines on the network.

NOTE Your practice's IT support can help if you are unsure how to share folders and change access permissions.

Give all Windows users who access Bp Premier ‘full control’ permissions to the folder and its contents.
Note the UNC path to the shared folder, for example, \\Desktop123\bponline, this is the store path you need to enter on all client machines.

Set up Medicare Certificates on Workstations

Perform these steps on every workstation that will utilise Bp Premier Medicare functionality.

Log in to Bp Premier and navigate to Setup > Configuration > Online claiming.
Click the Change button.
Enter in the UNC path to the certificate store on your server; this is the store path shared from your server.
Click Save.
Click Check certificate expiry. If sharing has been set up correctly for the certificate store, Bp Premier will display the certificates and their expiry dates.

You have now completed the certificate configuration.

Renew certificates into an existing store

Three scenarios can occur when site certificates need updating.

If the PKI Certificate Manager is installed, there should be nothing to do; the certificates should update automatically. To check your certificate expiry navigate to Setup > Configuration > Online claiming from the main window. Click the Check certificate expiry button.

NOTE Do not remove your current certificate.

If you have received a new certificate and passphrase then you will create a new certificate store. Follow the steps in Install new certificates into an existing store
If the PKI Certificate Manager is installed, but the certificates have not updated correctly, use the steps on the following pages (Section 2).

Download Your Site Certificates

Open the following link in an internet browser: Certificates Australia.
Enter at least one of the following and click Search!:
- First Name of person registered against the site certificate
- Surname or RA Number
- Email address registered against the site certificate (email is the quickest search)
- Organisation name registered against the site certificate.

Verizon Certificate Search

Click Click here for search tips for guidelines on effective searches and using the * wildcard.

Any matching certificates will be returned. Click Download next to the Signing Certificate and the Encryption Certificate and download both files to a known location. You will need to supply the location of these certificates in the final step.

Details have been blanked in the example below.

Verizon Certificates Returned

Renew Your Site Certificate Using the PKI Certificate Manager

Perform the instructions on the Bp Premier server machine with the certificate store installed (the file HIC.psi).

NOTE Do not delete your old certificates.

Install PKI Certificate Manager

If Medicare's PKI certificate manager has not been installed, download the certificate manager software from the Department of Human Services.
Unzip and install PKI Certificate Manager Software on the computer where the certificate store is located.

Renew Certificate

From the Windows desktop, open the Control Panel.
Select Small icons from the View by drop-down in the top right-hand corner.
Click PKI Certificate Manager. The Store Setup Wizard opens.
Select Use an Existing Store and click Next.
Browse to the location of the Bp Premier certificate store file hic.psi. By default, this file is in C:\ProgramData\BPOnline on the server. If you’re unsure of the path to the HIC file, in Bp Premier, select Setup > Configuration > Online Claiming and check the Path to certificate store value.
Click Finish. The PKI Certificate Manager will open, showing the certificates stored in the HIC file.

Leave the certificate manager open. Browse to the location where you downloaded your certificates.
Drag the Encrypt and Sign.cer public certificate files and drop into the PKI Certificate Manager. The certificate manager will prompt you for the Medicare site certificate PIC passphrase.
Log in to Bp Premier and navigate to Setup > Configuration > Online claiming.
Enter the passphrase and click OK. The expired site certificates will remain in the store. Two new certificates will be created with updated expiry dates in the future.

NOTE Do not delete your old certificates.

Close PKI Certificate Manager.

Check Certificate Expiry

To check that your certificates have been set up correctly, check their expiry date in Bp Premier.

Open Bp Premier.
Navigate to Setup > Configuration > Online claiming.
Click Check certificate expiry.
If certificates have been updated correctly, Bp Premier will display the certificates and their expiry dates.

Click Check certificate expiry. If sharing has been set up correctly for the certificate store, Bp Premier will display the certificates and their expiry dates.

You have now completed the certificate configuration.

Install new certificates into an existing store

If you already installed Medicare certificates on your system and have received a new CD and PIC passphrase, there are a few additional actions to perform before installing the new certificates.

If you have auto-renewing certificates follow the steps in Renew site certificates.