Base profile: https://www.hl7.org/fhir/encounter.html
Understanding Visits and Encounters
Visits, including Telehealth visits and Non-Visit Orders, are represented in the /Encounter resource. It's important to note that Encounters are distinct from Appointments. Think of an appointment as a placeholder for a potential encounter.
- Standard Workflow:
When an encounter is created from an appointment (which is the typical workflow), there will be a reference link between the two. However, in cases where a user deviates from the standard process, this link may not exist. - Non-PM System Practices:
If the practice is not using our Practice Management (PM) system, MMPM, then the appointment data will not be linked to the encounter resource. - Encounter Status:
While an encounter is still in progress, you will not be able to retrieve the Visit Note (document) or the Charges (ChargeItems). These details only become available once the encounter is marked as "finished."
Common use cases include:
- Find all Encounters (visits) for a patient
The following attributes are supported:
| Field Name | Notes |
|---|---|
| id | unique encounter ID |
metadata
| time/date the encounter was last updated |
| status | FHIR supports the following statuses: planned | arrived | triaged | in-progress | onleave | finished | cancelled + Currently MMI will only support encounters which are : ‘finished’ or ‘in-progress’ |
| class | https://www.hl7.org/fhir/v3/ActEncounterCode/vs.html Currently MMI will only support the class of ‘AMB’ |
| type | Encounter Type ValueSet: {baseurl}/{firm_url_prefix}/ema/fhir/v2/ValueSet/encounter-type |
| subject | Reference: Patient |
participant
| Reference: Practitioner |
| appointment | Reference: Appointment Note: that this will only appear if the appointment was created using MMPM AND the Encounter/Visit was created through the Appointment. |
| period | start: datetime the Encounter was started end: datetime the Encounter was finalized |
diagnosis
| Reference: Condition Note: When the Encounter is still ‘in-progress’, the Diagnoses will be identified by the ICD10 codes and once the Encounter is ‘finished’, those diagnoses will become References to the Condition resource. |
| location | Reference: Location |
The Following Operations are supported:
- Encounter READ
- Encounter SEARCH