1. FHIR R4 APIs with Bulk Data AccessFHIR R4 APIs with Bulk Data Access
  2. Resource Information
  3. Patient Export

Patient Export

The following topic describes the Patient Export operation.

To interact with the REST endpoints in the Patient Export resource, see Bulk Export.

Overview

The Patient Export operation is used to obtain FHIR resources for the list of patients provided in the request as an alternative to creating a group.

Note:

The current implementation does not support an export of all patients. A maximum of 20,000 patients may be provided in the export kick-off request.

An export process uses the FHIR Asynchronous Request Pattern to kick off the export job for the provided list of patients. Once the export job is kicked off, the status of the job may be checked using the URL returned in the Content-Location header from the kick-off response. Once the job is complete, the status request returns a list of file URLs that may be requested to download the content of the file. After the appropriate ndjson files are downloaded, use the delete request to clean up the files that are no longer needed.

The Patient Export operation supports exporting the following clinical resources:
  • AllergyIntolerance
  • CarePlan
  • CareTeam
  • Condition
  • Device
  • DiagnosticReport
  • DocumentReference
  • Encounter
  • Goal
  • Immunization
  • MedicationRequest
  • Observation
  • Patient
  • Procedure

Location, Organization, Practitioner, and Provenance may also be exported if at least one clinical resource is being exported as well.

When the _type parameter is used, only the FHIR resources specified are returned. Use the _type parameter to filter the resources required for a specific use case. Limiting the number of requested resources in the _type parameter is recommended to decrease response times.

Note:

The examples provided here are non-normative and replaying them in the public sandbox is not guaranteed to yield the results shown on the site.

Recommendations

  • Use the _type parameter whenever possible to improve response time and minimize storage requirements. _typeFilter may also be used to further refine the results to be returned.
  • Use the _since parameter to limit the export to only the relevant date range.
  • Clients should follow an Exponential Backoff approach when polling for status as outlined in the FHIR Bulk Data Access IG.
  • Retrieve files promptly because the exported content expires after 30 days.
  • Once the files are retrieved, use the delete request to clean up the data from your request.
  • The Patient Export operation supports a list of up to 20,000 patients. However, the recommended size for optimal performance is 10,000 patients or less.