Practitioner Module — Overview

This article is the starting point for anyone who needs to register, view, edit, deactivate, pay, or communicate with the doctors, consultants, and other staff members held in HMIS. It is written for end users who interact with these screens day-to-day. Administrators configuring the underlying catalogs, payment rules, withholding tax, privileges, and notifications should start at Admin — Practitioner Module Configuration Overview.

Who is a "practitioner" in HMIS

HMIS does not have a single screen called "practitioner". The same underlying record (a Staff profile, optionally extended into a Doctor profile, optionally extended further into a Consultant profile) is reached through different menu items depending on what you want to do:

If the person is…	Edit them under…	Underlying record type
A registered doctor who is not a channelling consultant	Administration → Manage Staff → Doctors (Excluding Consultants)	Doctor
A channelling consultant (sees patients on scheduled sessions)	Administration → Manage Staff → Consultant	Consultant (which is itself a Doctor)
Any salaried staff member (nurse, technician, cashier, allied health professional, etc.)	Administration → Manage Staff → Add New Staff / Staff List / Other Staff	Staff
You want to see doctors and consultants together in one list	Administration → Manage Staff → Doctors (Including Consultants)	mixed
You want to see absolutely everyone — doctors, consultants, and other staff	Administration → Manage Staff → Doctors & Staff	mixed

Because all three record types share the same underlying Staff table, a person you register as a doctor today can later be promoted to consultant, and any Staff record always has a single attached Person record holding name, title, NIC/passport, contact details, and date of birth.

How you reach the module

Top menu → Administration → Manage Staff.

Path: /admin/staff/admin_manage_staff_index.xhtml.

Privilege required: AdminStaff. If you do not see "Manage Staff" under Administration, ask the system administrator to assign you this privilege (Admin — Practitioner Privileges and Access).

The Manage Staff index has a four-tab sidebar on the left and a working area on the right. The sidebar tabs are Metadata, Staff, Manage, and Setup.

Metadata tab

Button	What it opens	Article
Doctor Specialities	Catalog of specialities used in the channelling module (Cardiology, Paediatrics, etc.).	Admin — Doctor Specialities Catalog
All Specialities	Catalog of specialities used on every Staff record (used in HR and staff listings). This is a separate list from Doctor Specialities.	Admin — Specialities Catalog

Doctor Specialities and All Specialities are two independent catalogs in HMIS. A clinical discipline that should appear in channelling booking screens must be added under Doctor Specialities; a discipline that should appear when you assign a staff member's role must be added under All Specialities. Most installations duplicate entries between the two so the names match.

Staff tab

Button	When to use
Add New Staff	Create any kind of staff member (default record type is plain Staff).
Staff List	Find any staff member by name, code, EPF no, or speciality, then edit.
Doctors (Excluding Consultants)	Add or edit a doctor who is not a channelling consultant.
Doctors (Including Consultants)	Browse the combined list of doctors and consultants.
Consultant	Add or edit a channelling consultant.
Other Staff	Edit any non-doctor staff member.
Doctors & Staff	Combined list of everyone.
View Staff Signatures	See the digital signature image for every staff member who has one.
Add Signature for staff	Upload a signature image to a specific staff record.

Manage tab

Button	When to use
Adjust Staff Welfare Eligibility	Open the staff welfare adjustment list to change individual qualifying amounts.

Setup tab

Button	When to use
Upload Consultants	Bulk-create consultants from a spreadsheet.
Upload Doctors	Bulk-create doctors from a spreadsheet.
Upload Staff	Bulk-create other staff from a spreadsheet.
Connect staff to user	Link a WebUser login to a Staff record so the user can sign bills, etc.
Staff List	Same as the Staff-tab list (shortcut from Setup).
Add Channelling Consultants to Institutions	Required before a consultant can be scheduled at a branch.
Bulk Delete Staff	Multi-select retire (soft-delete) of staff records.
Show All Consultant Items / Doctor Items / DoctorSpeciality Items / Speciality Items	Raw maintenance views (advanced; admin only).

What a practitioner record holds

Whichever sub-screen you open, you are editing the same underlying tables. The notable fields are:

Group	Fields
Identity (Person)	Title, Name, Full Name, Name with Initials, Initials, Surname, Last Name, NIC / Passport, Date of Birth, Description
Contact (Person)	Address, Email, Mobile, Phone, Fax
Professional	Code, Staff Code, Consultant Serial No (integer), Registration Number (used for SLMC or other regulatory ID), Qualification (free text), Speciality, Designation, Staff Category, Order Number
Employment	Status, Date Joined, Date Left, Working Department, Institution, Department
Welfare	Credit Limit Qualified, Current Credit Value, Annual Welfare Qualified, Annual Welfare Utilized
Leave	Working Time for Overtime per Week, Working Time for No Pay per Week, Allowed Late In Leave, Allowed Early Out Leave
Banking / EPF	Bank, Account No, EPF Bank Branch, EPF Account No, EPF No, AC No
Operational	Signature image, Charge (used as referring fee on some bill lines)
Auditing	Creator, Created At, Retirer, Retired At, Retire Comments

Some of these fields are visible only on the full Add New Staff screen (Practitioner — Register Other Staff); the simpler Doctor and Consultant screens expose a focused subset.

Day-to-day tasks and where to find them

Task	Article
Add a new doctor	Practitioner — Register a Doctor
Add a new consultant	Practitioner — Register a Consultant
Add a non-doctor staff member	Practitioner — Register Other Staff
Find an existing staff member	Practitioner — Search and List
Upload a signature image	Practitioner — Signatures
Make a consultant visible in channelling	Practitioner — Link to Institution for Channelling
Deactivate a practitioner who has left	Practitioner — Deactivate and Bulk Delete
Bulk-import practitioners from a spreadsheet	Practitioner — Bulk Upload from Spreadsheet
Mark a doctor in/out for OPD shift work	OPD Doctor Working Times — Mark In / Mark Out
Pay an OPD doctor per shift	OPD Doctor Payments — Per Shift
Pay an OPD doctor for all due fees	OPD Doctor Payments — All Due
Add a manual fee that is not on a bill	OPD Doctor Misc Fees and Reports
Pay a channelling consultant	Channel — Paying a Doctor
Pay inward professional / surgery fees	Inward Professional and Surgery Payments
Understand the withholding tax deduction on a payment	Withholding Tax on Professional Payments
Record consultant leave	Channel — Doctor Leave Management
Review SMS history for doctor events	Practitioner — Communication History

Limitations to be aware of

The following capabilities are sometimes requested but are not implemented in the current version of HMIS. Plan around them; do not enter them as fields in free-text columns expecting workflow behaviour.

• Practitioner merge. If the same doctor was created twice, there is no merge button. The duplicate must be retired (soft-deleted) and the surviving record kept; historical bills remain on whichever record they were created against.
• Subspecialty. Each Staff record has one speciality value. There is no second-level subspecialty list. Use the qualification or description field if you must record the subspecialty as free text.
• Formal credentialing workflow. There is no review, approval, or expiry workflow tied to the Registration / Qualification fields. They are free text. If you need expiry tracking, manage it outside HMIS for now.
• Periodic revalidation reminders. The system does not automatically remind you when a registration is due for renewal.
• Practitioner-level privileges. "Privileges" in HMIS are attached to the WebUser login, not to the doctor's clinical role. Granting a consultant access to a screen is done by editing the user account linked to that consultant, not by editing the consultant record. See Admin — Link Staff to System User.

Soft delete model

When you delete a doctor, consultant, or staff record in HMIS, the record is not physically removed. The system marks it as retired = true, captures the user who retired it and the timestamp, and excludes it from active lists. Historical bills, sessions, and reports referencing the practitioner continue to display correctly. The same soft-delete model applies to bulk deletes. See Practitioner — Deactivate and Bulk Delete and Admin — Retirement vs Hard Delete.

Where to go next

• New to HMIS practitioner management? Read Practitioner — Register a Doctor first, then Practitioner — Register a Consultant.
• Configuring the module for the first time? Start at Admin — Practitioner Module Configuration Overview.

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