Admin Practitioner Module Configuration Overview - hmislk/hmis GitHub Wiki

Admin — Practitioner Module Configuration Overview

This article is the administrator's entry point for everything that controls how the practitioner module behaves in HMIS. It does not configure clinical workflows — those are covered by the user-facing articles — but it does cover every catalog, configuration key, privilege, and behaviour switch that an admin tunes when standing up a new installation or adjusting an existing one.

End-user navigation is described in Practitioner Module Overview.

What an admin configures

Topic What you control Article
Speciality catalogs Two separate lists: All Specialities (for HR) and Doctor Specialities (for channelling). Admin — Specialities Catalog, Admin — Doctor Specialities Catalog
Supporting catalogs Staff Categories, Designations, Grades — used in the full staff editor. Admin — Staff Categories, Designations, Grades
Linking staff to system users Allow a WebUser login to sign bills on behalf of a Staff record. Admin — Link Staff to System User
Bulk practitioner imports Spreadsheet column specs and validation rules. Admin — Practitioner Bulk Upload Format
Withholding tax Configuration keys that drive the WHT panel on every professional payment screen. Admin — Withholding Tax Configuration
OPD doctor payment behaviour Whether shift closure is required before paying, marking-in/out gating, refund-aware filters. Admin — OPD Doctor Payment Behaviour
Channel-doctor SMS triggers and templates The six channel-doctor SMS events and the daily summary for referring doctors. Admin — Channel Doctor Notification SMS
SMS gateway URL, credentials, parameter mapping. SMS Configuration and Gateway Setup
Privileges The minimum set of privileges users need to manage staff, pay doctors, and access reports. Admin — Practitioner Privileges and Access
Soft retire vs hard delete When the in-app retire is enough and when database-level intervention is appropriate. Admin — Retirement vs Hard Delete
Audit trail What fields are written for creator/retirer and how to access them. Admin — Audit Trail on Practitioner Records

Where configuration lives in HMIS

HMIS holds configuration in two places that affect this module:

  1. Configuration options. Key-value pairs in the ConfigOption table, edited through the in-app Application Configuration screen. The keys mentioned in this article series include:
    • Withholding Tax Limit
    • Withholding Tax Percentage
    • Allow User To Select Whether To Pay Withholding Tax During Professional Payments
    • Withholding Tax Calculated Depending On This Month's Payments During Professional Payments
    • Withholding Tax Is Always Calculated During Professional Payments
    • Withholding Tax Is Never Calculated During Professional Payments
    • OPD Doctor Payments can be given without closing the shift.
    • Pay Doctors only After Marking Out
    • Pay Doctors only After Marking In
    • Remove Refunded Bill From OPD Staff Payment
  2. User preferences / department preferences / institution preferences. Stored on the UserPreference entity (which despite the name is used at multiple scopes). The SMS-related fields described in Admin — Channel Doctor Notification SMS and the SMS gateway fields described in SMS Configuration and Gateway Setup live here.

Privileges and roles live in their own tables and are administered through Administration → Manage Users.

Recommended setup order for a new installation

If you are standing up a new HMIS instance and need the practitioner module to work end-to-end, follow this order. It avoids the typical chicken-and-egg dependencies.

  1. Privileges. Create the operator roles and assign AdminStaff, OpdBilling, PaymentBilling, PaymentBillSearch, etc. Without AdminStaff you cannot even see the staff management screens. See Admin — Practitioner Privileges and Access.
  2. Specialities catalogs. Populate Doctor Specialities and All Specialities. Most installations duplicate names across both lists.
  3. Staff categories, designations, grades. Populate the supporting catalogs so the full staff editor's dropdowns are not empty.
  4. Institutions and departments. Make sure the institutions and departments that will host doctors and consultants exist.
  5. Register doctors / consultants / staff. Either one at a time or via bulk upload.
  6. Link consultants to institutions for channelling.
  7. Link staff to system users so cashiers can be matched to bills.
  8. WHT configuration. Set the limit, percentage, and default calculation mode.
  9. OPD payment behaviour. Decide whether shift closure is required.
  10. SMS gateway. Configure the gateway, then turn on the channel-doctor SMS triggers and templates.
  11. Test. Run an end-to-end scenario: mark in → bill → pay shift → confirm SMS history.

Per-scope configuration

Some settings can vary by department or institution rather than being global. This is most relevant for SMS templates and OPD payment behaviour — a branch hospital may want different SMS wording or a different WHT default than the flagship institution. When editing a configuration key, check whether the screen presents a scope picker (global / institution / department); if it does, edit at the level you intend to change.

Operational checks for ongoing administration

These are the periodic checks an administrator typically performs.

Check When Where
Catalog cleanliness Quarterly Specialities catalogs — drop unused ones, merge duplicates outside the UI.
Retired-but-still-linked records Monthly Person-to-institution links for retired consultants; remove leftover links.
WHT yearly threshold reset Year-end Confirm the cutoff is still aligned with current tax policy.
SMS failures Daily / weekly analytics/sms_faild.xhtml — escalate gateway issues.
Bill cancellations of professional payments Weekly Verify that cancelled payments correctly reset monthly totals for WHT.
New user-to-staff link audits When new users are added Confirm each WebUser who must sign bills is linked to the correct Staff.

Related articles

Then read the specific admin articles linked in the table above in the order that matches your task.

Back to Practitioner Module Overview