These release notes describe the changes made to Bp Premier since Saffron SP1 build 1.11.1.934.
Release Date | 28 October 2021 |
Release version | Bp Premier version Saffron SP2 (1.11.2.952) |
Notes last updated | 25 January 2022 |
What is in this release? | This release of Bp Premier includes bug fixes and some enhancements to clinical and management workflows. Support for automatic Data Update installation managed by Bp Service is also included. |
Which version can I upgrade from? | You can upgrade to version Saffron SP2 from Bp Premier version Indigo SP1 (1.9.1.863) or later. To check the current program version that you have installed, select Help > About. |
Which data update do I need? | You must install the May 2021 Data Update or later before you can upgrade to version 1.11.2.952. However, Best Practice Software recommend making sure you have the most recent Data Update installed before you run a program upgrade. |
Which database and operating system versions are supported? | Windows operating system Windows 8.1 or higher is supported. Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and higher is supported. Microsoft SQL server 2012 and higher is supported. |
When should I upgrade? | Best Practice Software recommend running the program upgrade outside of business hours. |
How do I upgrade? | Brief upgrade instructions are included in this document. |
What do I do after upgrading? | After upgrading, you will need to connect to Medicare Web Services via Setup > Configuration > PRODA. You must successfully set up a connection with Medicare Web Services in order to use some online patient verification functions in this build of Bp Premier. |
Upgrade to Saffron SP2 1.11.2.952
You must have the May 2021 data update or later installed before you upgrade to 1.11.2.952.
- Back up your Bp Premier database before running the upgrade.
- Synchronise all workstations in remote database mode with the Bp Premier server before you upgrade.
- Download and run the latest Drug Update on your Bp Premier server computer.
- Log all users out of the server and all clients before you upgrade.
- Download and run the 1.11.2.952 update on your server and all clients.
- Log back in to Bp Premier and resume use.
Upgrade notes
NOTE After upgrading, to use some online patient verification functions, you must successfully set up a connection with Medicare Web Services via Setup > Configuration > PRODA.
For information on registering with PRODA, select Help > Online to open the Bp Premier knowledge base and search for 'proda'. For information on setting up Medicare Web Services in Bp Premier, search for 'mws'.
After you upgrade, the option Use Bp Service for automatically deploying the Data Update is available in Setup > Configuration > Bp Service. This option removes the need to download the monthly data update from the Best Practice Software Resources page and run the update manually. For more information, search for 'data update' in the Bp Premier knowledge base (Help > Online).
Where do I find more information?
Select Help > Online from Bp Premier to open the Knowledge Base and search for more resources on the enhancements in Bp Premier Saffron SP2.
New Features
Automated Data Update installation
New configuration options are available in this release in Setup > Configuration > Bp Service to allow Bp Service to periodically poll for the latest Data Update and automatically install if a new Data Update is available.
You can nominate one or more users to be notified internally that a new Data Update has been installed and the outcome of the installation.
DASS 21
The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS 21) questionnaire has been added to the clinical tools available from the Patient Record.
Follow up Inbox improvements
A checkbox Force marking results as Contacted has been added to Configuration > Bp Comms. This option is ticked by default after an upgrade to Saffron SP2. This option gives practices more options for their followup workflow; for example, some practices prefer to mark results as contacted manually after confirming a followup appointment, rather than marking as contacted after an SMS or letter is sent out.
Saffron SP2 also introduces the Attempts column to the Follow up Inbox for keeping track of the number of times a contact attempt has been made for a report.
Password workflow improvements
As of Saffron SP2, the Force password change on next login checkbox has been added to the New user screen. If Force password change on next login is selected, the new user will be required to change their password when they next log into Bp Premier.
Outgoing email improvements
Saffron SP2 adds improved outgoing email functionality, including the ability to send PIN-protected PDF documents, and improved TLS encryption.
Medicare Web Services
This build of Bp Premier Saffron includes support for online patient verification and concession card checking services using Medicare Web Services.
Saffron SP2 includes support for Medicare Web Services. Medicare Web Services is an updated method for facilitating a connection between your practice and Medicare and DVA. Previous versions of Bp Premier have connected to Services Australia via a Medicare Client Adaptor, which utilises Medicare PKI certificates.
Access to Medicare Web Services is facilitated through Provider Digital Access (PRODA). PRODA is an online identity verification and authorisation system that provides secure access to government online services. Using PRODA to authenticate and identify users and organisations provides a higher level of security than previous methods.
Before you can connect Bp Premier to Medicare Web Services, you must have registered your organisation with PRODA. Once your organisation is registered, connect your practice to PRODA via Setup > Configuration > PRODA.
After configuring PRODA, Bp Premier will use Medicare Web Services in the background with no change to workflows.
Bp Premier Saffron Service Pack 2 offers the following Medicare and DVA functions through Medicare Web Services:
- Online DVA verification
- Online Patient verification
- Online Concessions verification
Functions not listed, such as claiming channels, will be supported in future releases of Bp Premier. For now, these functions will continue to use the Medicare adapter software and PKI certificates.
Other Enhancements
Bp Function | Release Notes | Key |
|---|---|---|
Invoices | Service descriptions on invoices now include a time stamp showing either the time the appointment was booked for if the invoice is linked to an appointment, or the time the invoice was created if the invoice is not linked to an appointment. | 65267 |
Installation | Deployed the latest eRx version for new installs of Bp Premier | 65243 |
Prescribing | For once only prescriptions, an option is now available to indicate the duration that the medication should be taken for, or to indicate that the medication should be taken until finished. This information will be printed on or sent with the prescription. | 64362 |
Cervical Screening | A Cervical Screening risk category can now be selected when entering a CST result from the Patient Record or the Inbox. | 50704 |
Cardiovascular Risk Calculator | A button has been added to the existing cardiovascular risk calculator tool linking to the online Absolute CVD risk calculator. | 65167 |
A Test connection button has been added to the Setup outgoing mail server screen to test if the details entered are correct. On saving SMTP details a test is now also performed to ensure correct details are entered. | 65227 | |
Bulk Billing | Practice locations can now have a Modified Monash Location set for future Bulk Billing Incentive changes. | 60182 |
Bp Premier email now supports outgoing TLS encryption and the ability to specify an outgoing SMTP port. | 64727 | |
PDF viewer and web browser | Web Browser controls have been updated to use an embedded Microsoft Edge browser. | 64680 |
Patient Demographic | DVA Numbers can now contain spaces as per Medicare requirements. | 65182 |
SMTP email account passwords are now stored encrypted in the database. | 64849 | |
Emails sent from the Bp Premier word processor now default to PIN protection for PDF attachments. | 64728 | |
eOrdering | eOrders now include the Patient's pregnancy details and urgency details if supplied. | 64421 |
Conversions | When marking converted data notes as complete, the database now reflects that user who performed the action. | 64350 |
Follow-up Inbox | The number of contact attempts against an incoming report is now visible in the Follow-up Inbox in the Attempts column. | 64415 |
CommBank Smart Health | Whitecoat Payment utility renamed to CommBank Smart Health. | 64762 |
Appointments | Additional appointment icons are now available when customising appointments (car, person, television, mobile phone, baby, home). | 64606 |
PIP QI | Database index added to ensure optimal speed when extracting data for PIP QI. | 64646 |
CommBank Smart Health | When processing a payment using CommBank Smart Health, users can now elect to send via Patient Claiming. | 64460 |
MediSecure | Database Index added to ensure optimal loading speed of Patient Records when MediSecure is enabled. | 65144 |
Patient Demographic | Mx has now been added to the Patient Title list. | 23783 |
Configuration | Health Provider AHPRA registration numbers can now be printed on invoices, receipts and statements via Billing options in Setup -> Configuration. | 64603 |
Appointment Book | Recurring appointments can now be made at 3 week intervals to support COVID vaccine intervals. | 64769 |
eOrdering | Electronic Pathology orders now include fasting and CST details. | 64420 |
Upgrading | The upgrade wizard will prompt the user that the minimum supported SQL version for Saffron SP2 is SQL Server 2012. | 60259 |
Moving reports | A new Drs Only checkbox has been added to the Move Report function in the Inbox, to filter out Nurses and Health Workers from the list of providers displayed. | 64009 |
Patient Record | Australian Immunisation Register Sent status column has been added in the Patient Record immunisations window. | 64151 |
AIR | Schools can now be added as a Contact for school based immunisation programs. | 64106 |
Program Upgrade | Minimum SQL Server version updated to SQL Server 2012 in the program upgrade. | 60259 |
Cancelled appointments | Performance improvements and Date filters added to cancelled appointments window. | 60583 |
Backup and restore | A new option Production Database Restore has been added to the BPS Backup Utility when restoring a database. This option indicates that the restore is to a Production (live) environment, and all Bp Premier functions such as SMS scheduling and results importing will resume when the restore is complete. Production Database Restore is ticked by default after upgrading. Untick this option if you are restoring a database for testing or evaluation purposes only. | 14899 |
Prescribing | Regulation 24 or 'Reg 24' has been relabelled to Regulation 49 (Reg 49) in Bp Premier. This option is disabled if repeats are set to zero. | 64132 |
| The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS 21) questionnaire has been added to the Clinical tools available from Patient Record > Clinical. You can print the results of the questionnaire. A patient can complete this form multiple times. All copies are saved to the patient record. If a provider saves a form more than once on the same day, only the most recent saved version is kept. |
|
HealthShare Directory | The loading time for the HealthShare Directory has been reduced. | 15709 |
Results follow-up | A checkbox Force marking results as Contacted has been added to Configuration > Bp Comms. This option is ticked by default after an upgrade to Saffron SP2. This option gives practices more options for their followup workflow; for example, some practices prefer to mark results as contacted manually after confirming a followup appointment, rather than marking as contacted after an SMS or letter is sent out. If Force marking results as Contacted is ticked:
| 58278 |
New user permissions | When a new user is created for most user categories, the HealthLink user permission is now set to 'Allow access'. | 32670 |
HealthLink | If Healthlink SmartForms has been configured and the user has the Healthlink permission set to 'Allow access', the HealthLink icon will appear in the toolbar of the patient record. | 32669 |
Patient gender identity | Word processor documents that use the data fields for <He / She>, <His / Her> and <Him / Her> will populate the field according to the following
| 26096 |
Patient gender identity | More pronouns have been made available in template gender identity fields. | 64097 |
Password management | A checkbox Force password change on next login has been added to the User Details window, and is enabled by default for new created and imported user records. If enabled, the user must update their password at the next login. Permission to access Configuration is not required for a user to update their password through this method. | 39229 |
Document viewer | The Open in External Viewer option in Document Viewer now checks against the file type to determine the best external viewer for documents created from a database conversion. | 39417 |
Debtors statement | When filtering the debtors' list by Location, printed statements now show the ABN recorded for that location in Setup > Practice Details > Location Details, rather than the default practice ABN. | 60656 |
Database Search | Diabetes Risk has been added as a searchable item to the database search function in Utilities > Search > Observations. | 61220 |
Visit Types | Practices can now indicate that a visit type is 'deleted' so that the visit type is not available for selection from Visit type dropdowns. This allows practices to remove visit types that they do not use. A new button Configure Visit Types is available in Setup > Configuration > Lists. Click this button to tick the visit types that your practice uses. Some system visit types cannot be deleted, and you cannot delete a visit type linked to an active appointment type. | 63536 |
Clinical Record | Email has been added to the clinical record demographics information visible at the top, so providers can see that a patient has an email address. Double-click Email to open the patient demographics at the Email field for updating. | 61915 |
User Details | A new text field Business Name has been added to User Details, so that a contracted doctor can insert their own business instead of the practice name in invoices and receipts. When printing invoices and receipts, if Business Name is not blank, replace Practice Name with Business Name. When printing invoices and receipts, if Business Name is blank and ABN No. is entered, ABN is inserted according to current behaviour. | 61588 |
Influenza vaccinations | When adding any influenza vaccine for a patient, the sequence number no longer increments, and defaults to '1'. A provider can manually edit the sequence number if necessary. | 61420 |
Word Processor | Word Processor controls have been upgraded to the latest versions for bug fixes and performance enhancements. | 60449 |
Immunisations | A new checkbox Sort by oldest Batches first has been added to Setup > Immunisation Batches. If ticked, available batch numbers will be listed from oldest to most recent. | 61124 |
Medicare expiry | A new option Check Medicare expiry date has been added to Setup > Configuration > Appointments, and is ticked by default. If unticked, Bp Premier will not check for an expired Medicare Card or missing expiry date when patient claiming or verifying patient numbers. | 61330 |
Latest News | A Latest News option has been added to the login window and Help menu that opens the latest news about Bp Premier inside the software, updated regularly. | 60192 |
Prescribing | The letter included in the New Rx authority screen Approval No: field now defaults to M. | 61126 |
Patient reminders | The Patient Reminders list window performance has been improved. | 41180 |
Messages | Any system-generated messages will now list Best Practice Software in the From column. | 59311 |
Imaging preferences | Spelling error in 'Laboratory' has been amended. | 25149 |
Database | The BP Utility Rebuild SQL Indexes has been updated to assess all database tables for fragmentation. | 58300 |
Bug fixes
Bp Function | Release Notes | Key |
|---|---|---|
Prescribing | Fixed an issue where duplicate complex instructions were printing on prescriptions if no duration was selected for once only prescriptions. | 66675 |
eOrdering | Fixed an issue with saving eOrdering HL7 files over UNC paths. | 65467 |
Patient Verification | Performing a bulk online patient verification from the Appointment book now correctly switches between DVA and Medicare. | 65364 |
MIMS | Rolled back to a previous version of TxText Control due to MIMS compatibility issues. Viewing MIMS PI now correctly shows anchor links. | 65381 |
Document viewer | Viewing PDF documents from Correspondence out no longer causes an error. | 64680 |
Follow up Inbox | Fixed a bug where sending a Single SMS from the follow-up Inbox did not update the result status to Sent. | 65398 |
Billing | Fixed a bug where the referral prompt was missing for some DVA Online Claiming accounts that require a referral for Medicare billing. | 62540 |
Fixed a bug where SMTP passwords may have been trimmed if they contained any white space. | 65293 | |
Data Update | The Automatic Data Update checking process has been made more robust. | 65202 |
Contact import | Fixed a bug preventing importing of contacts | 64598 |
Outgoing emails now correctly use the 'from' address to match the sending account that is configured. | 65193 | |
Appointment book | Unavailable appointments can now be made available after changing the default appointment length. | 63228 |
Document viewer | Bp Premier now gracefully handles errors when a 3rd party Text Control is not correctly installed. | 64344 |
Subpoena tool | Fixed an error when performing a subsequent Subpoena print out. | 64498 |
Configuration | Performance improvements made to the opening of the Configuration screen. | 54028 |
DVA claims | Specialist DVA Claims now correctly send for multi-location practices | 23128 |
Past history | Clicking Synonyms button for free text Past history item caused a fatal error. This has been fixed. | 44404 |
Gender options | Birth Sex - 'Other' now displays correctly in the Patient's Clinical Record. | 58360 |
Electronic prescribing | Ceased electronic scripts can now be cancelled or deleted from Past Prescriptions. | 44439 |
Patient Record | Fixed remote download error when opening a Patient Record. | 64434 |
Subpoena Tool | Subpoena tool now handles missing data types correctly. | 64395 |
Patient Record | Resolved printing issues introduced in the previous Beta version. | 64426 |
Subpoena Tool | Fixed date ranges being ignored when using the Subpoena tool. | 64358 |
Data Update | Improved error logging when automated updates Date Updates are applied. | 64485 |
Samples Database | Fixed an error that was occurring when opening Best Practice Samples in a previous Beta version. | 64429 |
Conversions | When importing patient records from Medical Director, completion status for all investigations is now set correctly If the patient record is exported, all investigations are exported regardless of completion status. | 48502 |
Health Summary | HTML-format investigations are now inserted with correct formatting in a Patient Health Summary. | 58244 |
Pregnancy outcome | Finalizing a pregnancy managed by a UserID that is not a Doctor in the database no longer causes a fatal error. | 61316 |
Appointment Book | Inactive and Deceased patients are now shown in red for the appointment book F2 Search Function. | 59298 |
Appointment Book | The Appointment Book no longer errors on refresh if Bp Premier cannot retrieve the selected layouts. | 20160 |
Immunisation reminders | When an immunisation has been recorded and the Send reminder tickbox is selected, the reminder is now allocated to the correct user. |
|
Electronic prescribing | When using Saffron, the options for the electronic prescription token method did not always show unless the patient record is closed and reopened to refresh the list. This has been fixed. | 63069 |
Preventative Health | The Preventative Health notification for Prevenar 13 now displays correctly for patients over 70 and patients who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. | 54961 |
Close the Gap | The checkbox for Close the Gap (CTG) in the patient demographics is now enabled only for applicable ethnicities. | 58877 |
Bp Partner Network installation | The Third-party installation screen that appears at the end of an installation or upgrade sometimes produced an error if third parties were already installed. This has been fixed. | 60462 |
PKI certificates | For sites that upgraded to Saffron SP1 and set up NASH certificates for multiple locations, Bp Premier now automatically distributes the NASH certificate for all locations on startup | 60587 |
Report Viewer | PDF files now render correctly when imported. | 25826 |
PDF viewer | PDF files now render correctly when imported. | 32929 |
Follow up reminders | Closing the Follow up reminders window no longer causes an error. | 54532 |
Practice Details | Entering a site ID with a large number no longer causes an error. | 59158 |
Bp Comms | An issue with SMS appointment reminders sending when Use BP Service for sending automated appointment reminders is not selected is resolved. | 24518 |
Bp Utilities | When a utility that requires credentials is opened, in the login screen the selected user now defaults to the logged-in user. | 58732 |
Bp Certificate Manager | When the Bp Certificate Manager is opened, in the login screen the selected user now defaults to the logged-in user. | 50453 |
Configuration > Reminders | Text entry for Custom reminder types is now limited to the column length. | 58143 |
Investigations viewer | Page headers in documents now display correctly. | 27018 |
Configuration > Messaging | An issue where messaging providers could be edited in an RDP session by clicking the provider has been resolved. | 59127 |
Known issues
Issue | Release Notes | Key |
|---|---|---|
Prescribing (MediSecure) | Prescribing Estalis Sequi via Medisecure omits the second active ingredient (Norethisterone) from the ETP message. Workaround When prescribing, tick Include Brand Name. This includes brand but does also include both active ingredients correctly. This issue will be fixed in Saffron Service Pack 3. | 67345 |
Incentive items | In Saffron SP2 or later, If the MM Location selector in Location Details is set to any value other than ‘MM1’ and ‘MM2’, the MM location incentive item is not applied correctly to bulk bill invoices. The old incentive items 10990 or 10991 are still being applied. Workaround: No current workaround. The correct incentive item can be added manually, but the incorrect incentive item cannot be removed. Best Practice Software are working on an update to the January Data Update and will communicate to practices as soon as available. | 67545 |
Payment details screen | Ticking Pay Gap does not populate the payment method fields, or the Gap: or Payment total: fields in the Payment details screen with the gap amount. | 66703 |
Online patient verification | When performing an online patient verification from the appointment book by right-clicking on an appointment and selecting Online patient verification, clicking OK on the prompt causes the appointment book window to minimise. | 65575 |
Patient record | Longer phone numbers and ethnicity information is cut off early in the demographic information at the top of the patient record. | 66645 |
Prescribing | An error occurs when clicking the Drug Combination button in the Current Rx wizard. | 66822 |
Subpoena tool | A fatal error occurs when exporting the following data in the subpoena tool:
| 66814 |
Subpoena tool | If the following workflow is used in the Subpoena tool, the exported subpoena file will include all content preceding the date range, regardless of the date range selected:
Workaround: Use either of the following workflows when using the Subpoena tool instead.
| 67127 |
AU 