The Encounter resource includes some guidance (8.11.2 Boundaries and Relationships) to help implementers understand how to apply status and Encounter.period (i.e., actual start and stop times). It may be helpful to consider some text explaining other confounding issues about Encounter.period. Administrative (billing) software may indicate a start based on patient check-in or initiation of clinician-patient interaction and stop based on patient check-out or end of clinician-patient interaction. However, clinical software may require that clinicians "close out" the encounter when all related documentation is completed. And, in the real-world, such documentation completion may take 48, 72 or more hours so the Encounter is left in "open" status and the clinical software could identify the Encounter.period as 72 hours for a 15-minute actual encounter. Such timings are significant especially when evaluating clinical workflow and when comparing the time from the end of one activity until the initiation of another activity. It has surfaced as an issue in calculating quality measures. Some general guidance about actual intent Vs interpretation would be helpful in the FHIR Encounter resource "boundaries and relationships" section.