Frequently asked questions about the patient demographic

Select a provider from the Usual doctor drop-down in patient demographics.

Select a Usual doctor and tick Deny access to other users in patient demographics. No other Bp Premier users will be able to view the patient's record.

In an emergency, confidential patient records can be accessed using the Emergency Patient Access tool available from the Database tab of the Configuration screen. See Understanding confidentiality and patient notes for more information.

Your practice may regularly collate de-identified demographic data for business analysis and reporting, for example. A patient can opt out of being included in reporting like this.

Tick Opt Out De-Identified Data Extraction check box. Third-party data extraction tools such as MediTracker and PEN Clinical Audit Tool will note this option and will not include the patient in their data extraction routines.

No. Unlike the patient’s clinical record, historical data is not preserved when the patient demographics is updated. All updates overwrite the previous record.

The only method of viewing historical demographic data is to restore a backup made prior to the update to a temporary trial Bp Premier server.

Clinical functions use the Birth Sex field to determine what actions are available in the patient record. For example, with the Birth Sex field set as Female, the Obstetric history and Cervical screening tabs are available. Selecting a value in the Birth Sex field on a new patient defaults the Gender Identity and Pronoun fields to match the chosen sex. When some Titles are selected, they pre-populate the Birth sex, Gender Identity and Pronouns. Eg. Title of Mr; Birth sex is male; Gender Identity is male; Pronouns are He/Him/His.

The Gender Identity field has no clinical bearing and is primarily an identification field. Choosing Different identity enables a textbox where you can type in custom text.

The Pronouns field holds information on how the patient is to be addressed in conversation and correspondence. Template fields have been added to the Word Processor to make Pronouns available.

Search for patients using the Gender Identity field in Database search (Utilities > Search). The Gender Identity criteria is under the Demographics search options.

Bp Premier does not display gender and pronoun fields in the patient demographic area of the clinical record when the patient's gender matches the birth sex.

Select an account type from the Usual account drop down on the right hand side. When a visit from the patient is finalised, the Account Type field will default to the type selected here.

Yes. See Delete and recover records for more information.

No, the head of family must be listed as a patient. However, the patient's next of kin and emergency contact do not need to be listed as patients.

At the bottom of the patient demographics, read-only fields indicate the creation and last updated dates for the patient record. This allows staff to see how long a patient has been attending the practice, and when and by whom the record was last updated. For example, your practice might have a policy of confirming contact details every twelve months.

NOTE  A Created by value of 'Practice' indicates that the record was imported or updated externally to Bp Premier.

Try following the instructions in Find a missing patient record.

As of Saffron SP2, Bp Premier can confirm whether a patient has a concession card, but will not return the patient's concession card number. Ensure you obtain the concession card number from the patient and enter the number in the Pension/HCC No: field.

Patients under 17 years of age require a head of family to be listed in their demographic information if they are being privately billed. If the patient is being bulk billed, a head of family does not need to be listed, regardless of the patient's age.

In Saffron SP2 or later, click Bank account to add a patient's bank account details to Bp Premier.

If a patient's bank account details are added in Bp Premier, When a patient pays their account and the claim is sent via patient claiming, the bank account details entered into Bp Premier will be sent with the claim, and the patient's rebate will be paid into that account.

These bank account details are not saved to Medicare, and will not save over any existing bank account details that Medicare has recorded for the patient.

If Use address held by Services Australia is unticked, the patient's address in Bp Premier will also be sent with the claim.

When a claim is sent to Services Australia for an unpaid or partially paid account, Services Australia will send the patient a Pay Doctor Via Claimant (PDVC) cheque, which the patient needs to forward to you as payment for the service. If Use address held by Services Australia is unticked, the cheque will be sent to the patient's address recorded in Bp Premier.

See Patient Claiming: Processing Gap Payments for more information.