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  1. FHIR Specification Feedback
  2. FHIR-28621

Encounter.period is too restricted when all you have is a date

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    • Icon: Change Request Change Request
    • Resolution: Not Persuasive
    • Icon: Medium Medium
    • FHIR Core (FHIR)
    • R5
    • Patient Administration
    • Encounter
    • Datatypes
    • Hide

      The period datatype start/end values support day level precision, and thus you are able to specify the same "date" level value for both fields.

      The textual invariant on the datatypes page in STU3/R4 suggested that the start must be less than the end, and not equal, however this has been corrected in R5, and also note that in STU3/R4 the technical invariant expression(s) both permitted the values to be equal.

      So for you date only precision usage, just enter the same value in both fields.

      This is not implying a 24 hour encounter - the precision doesn't indicate that.

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      The period datatype start/end values support day level precision, and thus you are able to specify the same "date" level value for both fields. The textual invariant on the datatypes page in STU3/R4 suggested that the start must be less than the end, and not equal, however this has been corrected in R5, and also note that in STU3/R4 the technical invariant expression(s) both permitted the values to be equal. So for you date only precision usage, just enter the same value in both fields. This is not implying a 24 hour encounter - the precision doesn't indicate that.
    • Alexander Henket/Cooper Thompson: 4-0-0

    Description

      In The Netherlands all General Practitioners know about/care about is the date of an encounter. The current Encounter.period does not allow for use as a date. The closest solution seems to be:

      <period>
  <start value="yyyymmdd"/>
  <end value="yyyymmdd"/>
</period>

      But that leads to the question what that means. Is this a zero-second consultation, a 24-hour period consultation, or a consultation at given date with unknown timeframe?

      The latter would fit the business need, but nowhere in the datatypes specification can I find justification for that interpretation. I can only find justification for a 24-hours period consultation:

      For example, the period 2011-05-23 to 2011-05-27 includes all the times from the start of the 23rd May through to the end of the 27th of May.

      I see two types of solutions:

      1. Work with FHIR-I to update the (normative) specification of datatype Period so it may be used as if it were a dateTime

      2. Enhance Encounter so it supports dateTime. For example by replacing Encounter.period with Encounter.effective[x] (dateTime | Period)

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            ahenket Alexander Henket
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