Guidance on how to interpret the contents of this table can be found here

0. Patient
Definition

Demographics and other administrative information about an individual or animal receiving care or other health-related services.

ShortInformation about an individual or animal receiving health care services
Control0..*
Is Modifierfalse
Must Supportfalse
Summaryfalse
Alternate NamesSubjectOfCare Client Resident
2. Patient.extension:vital_status
Slice Namevital_status
Definition

Coded representation of a patient's vital status

ShortVital Status
Control0..1
This element is affected by the following invariants: ele-1
TypeExtension(Vital Status) (Extension Type: CodeableConcept)
Is Modifierfalse
Must Supportfalse
Summaryfalse
Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
ext-1: Must have either extensions or value[x], not both (extension.exists() != value.exists())
4. Patient.identifier
Definition

An identifier for this patient.

ShortAn identifier for this patient
NoteThis is a business identifier, not a resource identifier (see discussion)
Control0..*
TypeIdentifier
Is Modifierfalse
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Requirements

Patients are almost always assigned specific numerical identifiers.

Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
6. Patient.identifier.value
Definition

The portion of the identifier typically relevant to the user and which is unique within the context of the system.

ShortThe value that is unique
Comments

If the value is a full URI, then the system SHALL be urn:ietf:rfc:3986. The value's primary purpose is computational mapping. As a result, it may be normalized for comparison purposes (e.g. removing non-significant whitespace, dashes, etc.) A value formatted for human display can be conveyed using the Rendered Value extension. Identifier.value is to be treated as case sensitive unless knowledge of the Identifier.system allows the processer to be confident that non-case-sensitive processing is safe.

Control0..1
Typestring
Is Modifierfalse
Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
8. Patient.name
Definition

A name associated with the individual.

ShortA name associated with the patient
Comments

A patient may have multiple names with different uses or applicable periods. For animals, the name is a "HumanName" in the sense that is assigned and used by humans and has the same patterns.

Control1..*
TypeHumanName
Is Modifierfalse
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Requirements

Need to be able to track the patient by multiple names. Examples are your official name and a partner name. The Alphabetic representation of the name SHALL be always provided

Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
ips-pat-1: Patient.name.given, Patient.name.family or Patient.name.text SHALL be present (family.exists() or given.exists() or text.exists())
10. Patient.name.text
Definition

Text representation of the full name. Due to the cultural variance around the world a consuming system may not know how to present the name correctly; moreover not all the parts of the name go in given or family. Creators are therefore strongly encouraged to provide through this element a presented version of the name. Future versions of this guide may require this element

ShortText representation of the full name
Comments

Can provide both a text representation and parts. Applications updating a name SHALL ensure that when both text and parts are present, no content is included in the text that isn't found in a part.

Control0..1
Typestring
Is Modifierfalse
Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Requirements

A renderable, unencoded form.

Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
12. Patient.name.family
Definition

The part of a name that links to the genealogy. In some cultures (e.g. Eritrea) the family name of a son is the first name of his father.

ShortFamily name (often called 'Surname')
Comments

Family Name may be decomposed into specific parts using extensions (de, nl, es related cultures).

Control0..1
Typestring
Is Modifierfalse
Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Alternate Namessurname
Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
14. Patient.name.given
Definition

Given name.

ShortGiven names (not always 'first'). Includes middle names
Comments

If only initials are recorded, they may be used in place of the full name parts. Initials may be separated into multiple given names but often aren't due to paractical limitations. This element is not called "first name" since given names do not always come first.

Control0..*
Typestring
Is Modifierfalse
Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Alternate Namesfirst name, middle name
Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
16. Patient.telecom
Definition

A contact detail (e.g. a telephone number or an email address) by which the individual may be contacted.

ShortA contact detail for the individual
Comments

A Patient may have multiple ways to be contacted with different uses or applicable periods. May need to have options for contacting the person urgently and also to help with identification. The address might not go directly to the individual, but may reach another party that is able to proxy for the patient (i.e. home phone, or pet owner's phone).

Control0..*
TypeContactPoint
Is Modifierfalse
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Requirements

People have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.

Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
18. Patient.gender
Definition

Administrative Gender - the gender that the patient is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes.

Shortmale | female | other | unknown
Comments

The gender might not match the biological sex as determined by genetics or the individual's preferred identification. Note that for both humans and particularly animals, there are other legitimate possibilities than male and female, though the vast majority of systems and contexts only support male and female. Systems providing decision support or enforcing business rules should ideally do this on the basis of Observations dealing with the specific sex or gender aspect of interest (anatomical, chromosomal, social, etc.) However, because these observations are infrequently recorded, defaulting to the administrative gender is common practice. Where such defaulting occurs, rule enforcement should allow for the variation between administrative and biological, chromosomal and other gender aspects. For example, an alert about a hysterectomy on a male should be handled as a warning or overridable error, not a "hard" error. See the Patient Gender and Sex section for additional information about communicating patient gender and sex.

Control0..1
BindingThe codes SHALL be taken from AdministrativeGender
(required to http://hl7.org/fhir/ValueSet/administrative-gender|4.0.1)

The gender of a person used for administrative purposes.

Typecode
Is Modifierfalse
Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Requirements

Needed for identification of the individual, in combination with (at least) name and birth date.

Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
20. Patient.birthDate
Definition

The date of birth for the individual.

ShortThe date of birth for the individual
Comments

At least an estimated year should be provided as a guess if the real DOB is unknown There is a standard extension "patient-birthTime" available that should be used where Time is required (such as in maternity/infant care systems).

Control1..1
Typedate
Is Modifierfalse
Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Requirements

Age of the individual drives many clinical processes.

Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
LOINC Code21112-8
22. Patient.deceased[x]
Definition

Indicates if the individual is deceased or not.

ShortIndicates if the individual is deceased or not
Comments

If there's no value in the instance, it means there is no statement on whether or not the individual is deceased. Most systems will interpret the absence of a value as a sign of the person being alive.

Control0..1
TypeChoice of: boolean, dateTime
[x] NoteSeeChoice of Data Typesfor further information about how to use [x]
Is Modifiertrue because This element is labeled as a modifier because once a patient is marked as deceased, the actions that are appropriate to perform on the patient may be significantly different.
Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
Must Supportfalse
Summarytrue
Requirements

The fact that a patient is deceased influences the clinical process. Also, in human communication and relation management it is necessary to know whether the person is alive.

Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
SlicingThis element introduces a set of slices on Patient.deceased[x]. The slices areUnordered and Closed, and can be differentiated using the following discriminators:
  • type @ $this
  • 24. Patient.deceased[x]:deceasedBoolean
    Slice NamedeceasedBoolean
    Definition

    Indicates if the individual is deceased or not.

    ShortIndicates if the individual is deceased or not
    Comments

    If there's no value in the instance, it means there is no statement on whether or not the individual is deceased. Most systems will interpret the absence of a value as a sign of the person being alive.

    Control0..1
    Typeboolean
    [x] NoteSeeChoice of Data Typesfor further information about how to use [x]
    Is Modifiertrue because This element is labeled as a modifier because once a patient is marked as deceased, the actions that are appropriate to perform on the patient may be significantly different.
    Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
    Must Supportfalse
    Summarytrue
    Requirements

    The fact that a patient is deceased influences the clinical process. Also, in human communication and relation management it is necessary to know whether the person is alive.

    Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
    26. Patient.deceased[x]:deceasedDateTime
    Slice NamedeceasedDateTime
    Definition

    Indicates if the individual is deceased or not.

    ShortIndicates if the individual is deceased or not
    Comments

    If there's no value in the instance, it means there is no statement on whether or not the individual is deceased. Most systems will interpret the absence of a value as a sign of the person being alive.

    Control0..1
    TypedateTime
    [x] NoteSeeChoice of Data Typesfor further information about how to use [x]
    Is Modifiertrue because This element is labeled as a modifier because once a patient is marked as deceased, the actions that are appropriate to perform on the patient may be significantly different.
    Primitive ValueThis primitive element may be present, or absent, or replaced by an extension
    Must Supportfalse
    Summarytrue
    Requirements

    The fact that a patient is deceased influences the clinical process. Also, in human communication and relation management it is necessary to know whether the person is alive.

    Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
    28. Patient.address
    Definition

    An address for the individual.

    ShortAn address for the individual
    Comments

    Patient may have multiple addresses with different uses or applicable periods.

    Control0..*
    TypeAddress
    Is Modifierfalse
    Must Supportfalse
    Summarytrue
    Requirements

    May need to keep track of patient addresses for contacting, billing or reporting requirements and also to help with identification.

    Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))
    30. Patient.generalPractitioner
    Definition

    Patient's nominated care provider.

    ShortPatient's nominated primary care provider
    Comments

    This may be the primary care provider (in a GP context), or it may be a patient nominated care manager in a community/disability setting, or even organization that will provide people to perform the care provider roles. It is not to be used to record Care Teams, these should be in a CareTeam resource that may be linked to the CarePlan or EpisodeOfCare resources. Multiple GPs may be recorded against the patient for various reasons, such as a student that has his home GP listed along with the GP at university during the school semesters, or a "fly-in/fly-out" worker that has the onsite GP also included with his home GP to remain aware of medical issues.

    Jurisdictions may decide that they can profile this down to 1 if desired, or 1 per type.

    Control0..*
    TypeReference(Organization, Practitioner, PractitionerRole)
    Is Modifierfalse
    Must Supportfalse
    Summaryfalse
    Alternate NamescareProvider
    Invariantsele-1: All FHIR elements must have a @value or children (hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count()))