Encounter

This topic describes information for the Encounter resource.

To interact with the REST endpoints in the Encounter resource, see Encounter.

Overview

The Encounter resource provides admissions or visits during which healthcare services were provided to a patient. An encounter has a class to distinguish between different healthcare settings such as inpatient, outpatient, emergency, and so on. A patient may have one medical record number with multiple encounter numbers per facility or organization. Substantial variance exists between organizations in the definition of an encounter and what events are aggregated together to constitute an encounter.

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. The meta.security field is present only when a problem or diagnosis is marked as confidential.

Fields

• Encounter ID

• Identifier

• Status

• Class

• Type

• Priority

• Patient

• Participants:

  • Type

  • Name

• Start/end time of the encounter

• Discharge disposition

• Reason for visit

• Location

• Organization

• Hospitalization:

  • Admit source

  • Diet preference

  • Special Courtesy

  • Special Arrangement

  • Destination

Terminology Mappings

• Encounter.identifier.type

  Description: The type used to determine which identifier to use for a specific purpose.

  • Details: Identifier Type Codes

    System: http://hl7.org/fhir/identifier-type

  • Details: v2 Identifier Type

    System: https://hl7.org/fhir/v2/0203

• Encounter.type

  Description: The type of encounter.

  Note:

  Currently not bound to any terminology.

• Encounter.priority

  Description: Indicates the urgency of the encounter.

  Details: Encounter Priority

  System: https://hl7.org/fhir/encounter-priority

• Encounter.participant.type

  Description: Role of participant in encounter.

  • Details: ParticipantType

    System: http://hl7.org/fhir/participant-type

  • Details: v3 Code System ParticipationType

    System: https://hl7.org/fhir/v3/ParticipationType

• Encounter.reason

  Description: The type of encounter.

  Note:

  Currently not bound to any terminology. The value would always be returned as a free-text value.

• Encounter.hospitalization.admitSource

  Description: From where patient was admitted.

  Details: AdmitSource

  System: https://hl7.org/fhir/admit-source

• Encounter.hospitalization.dietPreference

  Description: Medical, cultural or ethical food preferences to help with catering requirements.

  Details: Diet

  System: https://hl7.org/fhir/diet

• Encounter.hospitalization.specialCourtesy

  Description: Special courtesies.

  Details: v3 Code System EncounterSpecialCourtesy

  System: https://hl7.org/fhir/v3/EncounterSpecialCourtesy

• Encounter.hospitalization.specialArrangement

  Description: Special arrangements.

  Details: SpecialArrangements

  System: https://hl7.org/fhir/encounter-special-arrangements

• Encounter.hospitalization.dischargeDisposition

  Description: Discharge Disposition.

  Details: DischargeDisposition

  System: https://hl7.org/fhir/discharge-disposition

Custom Extensions

All URLs for custom extensions are defined as https://fhir-ehr.cerner.com/dstu2/StructureDefinition/{id}

Table - Extensions

ID	Value[x} Type	Description
Encounter Guarantor	None	The guarantors of the encounter.
Encounter Guarantor Party	Reference	A reference to a Patient, Person, or Organization.
Encounter Guarantor Period	Period	The period when this encounter guarantor is effective.