There are two ways the word "admission" can be used: The act of admitting someone to a facility (a.k.a., intake) The details of what happened from the time of intake to the time of discharge. The Encounter.admission backbone element is meant to reflect the latter.  It was not mean to describe the event that is the intake process for an admission.   We will update the definition of Encounter.admission to clarify this:   Current: Definition Details about the admission to a healthcare service. Proposed: Definition Details about the stay during which a healthcare service is provided.   This does not describe the event of admitting the patient, but rather any information that is relevant from the time of admittance until the time of discharge.