Release 4

This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v4.0.1: R4 - Mixed Normative and STU) in it's permanent home (it will always be available at this URL). The current version which supercedes this version is 5.0.0. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions . Page versions: R5 R4B R4 R3 R2

12.12 Resource Schedule - Content

Patient Administration Work GroupMaturity Level: 3 Trial UseSecurity Category: Business Compartments: Device, Patient, Practitioner, RelatedPerson

A container for slots of time that may be available for booking appointments.

Schedule resources provide a container for time-slots that can be booked using an appointment. It provides the window of time (period) that slots are defined for and what type of appointments can be booked.
The schedule does not provide any information about actual appointments. This separation greatly assists where access to the appointments would not be permitted for security or privacy reasons, while still being able to determine if an appointment might be available.

Note: A schedule is not used for the delivery of medication, the Timing data type should be used for that purpose.

A schedule controls the dates and times available for the performance of a service and/or the use of a resource. One schedule applies to one service or resource, since each service or resource can be reserved independently of the others.
If two or more services, people, locations, or things cannot be reserved independently of one another, they are considered to be one activity or resource.

A schedule consists of slots of time during which the controlled service or resource is potentially available for provision or use. Slots are categorized as open, booked, or blocked. An open slot on a schedule indicates that the service or resource is available for provision or use during that period of time. A booked slot indicates that the service or resource is not available during the time period, because an appointment has been scheduled. A blocked slot indicates that a service or resource is unavailable for reasons other than a scheduled appointment.

The real-world, non-automated analogue of the schedule described above is a standard appointment book. These books are generally organized with rows of time slots, during which a service or resource is available.

A slot is one unit on a schedule. A slot represents the smallest unit of time or quantity that a service or resource may be booked. Depending on the nature of the service or resource, there may be more than one defined slot at a given instant of time. For example, if a service is an open group therapy session with twelve available seats, then there are twelve slots for the given block of time.

The schedule belongs to a single instance of a service or resource. This is normally a HealthcareService, Practitioner, Location or Device. In the case where a single resource can provide different services, potentially at different location, then the schedulable resource is considered the composite of the actors.
For example, if a practitioner can provide services at multiple locations, they might have one schedule per location, where each schedule includes both the practitioner and location actors. When booking an appointment with multiple schedulable resources, multiple schedules may need to be checked depending on the configuration of the system.

If an appointment has two practitioners, a specific medical device and a room then there could be a schedule for each of these resources that may need to be consulted to ensure that no collisions occur.
If the schedule needed to be consulted, then there would be one created covering the planning horizon for the time of the appointment.

When checking availability for an appointment, the creator of the appointment should determine which schedules are applicable, then check for available slots within each schedule.

Determining which schedules should be consulted often will involve searching via the properties of the referenced actors, such as the ServiceCategory on the HealthcareService, or the Address on a Location.

The type parameter can be used to filter the type of services that can be booked within the associated slots.

If all slots are busy, the caller may attempt to book an appointment into an already-booked slot, but the server business rules will dictate whether overbooking is allowed, or whether the appointment may be given a higher precedence and allocated the overbooked slot.

This resource is referenced by TriggerDefinition and Slot

Structure

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraintsdoco
.. Schedule TUDomainResourceA container for slots of time that may be available for booking appointments
Elements defined in Ancestors: id, meta, implicitRules, language, text, contained, extension, modifierExtension
... identifier Σ0..*IdentifierExternal Ids for this item
... active ?!Σ0..1booleanWhether this schedule is in active use
... serviceCategory Σ0..*CodeableConceptHigh-level category
Service category (Example)
... serviceType Σ0..*CodeableConceptSpecific service
Service type (Example)
... specialty Σ0..*CodeableConceptType of specialty needed
Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)
... actor Σ1..*Reference(Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | RelatedPerson | Device | HealthcareService | Location)Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for
... planningHorizon Σ0..1PeriodPeriod of time covered by schedule
... comment 0..1stringComments on availability

doco Documentation for this format

UML Diagram (Legend)

Schedule (DomainResource)External Ids for this itemidentifier : Identifier [0..*]Whether this schedule record is in active use or should not be used (such as was entered in error) (this element modifies the meaning of other elements)active : boolean [0..1]A broad categorization of the service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceCategory : CodeableConcept [0..*] « (Strength=Example)ServiceCategory?? »The specific service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceType : CodeableConcept [0..*] « (Strength=Example)ServiceType?? »The specialty of a practitioner that would be required to perform the service requested in this appointmentspecialty : CodeableConcept [0..*] « Additional details about where the content was created (e.g. clinical specialty). (Strength=Preferred)PracticeSettingCodeValueSet? »Slots that reference this schedule resource provide the availability details to these referenced resource(s)actor : Reference [1..*] « Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole| RelatedPerson|Device|HealthcareService|Location »The period of time that the slots that reference this Schedule resource cover (even if none exist). These cover the amount of time that an organization's planning horizon; the interval for which they are currently accepting appointments. This does not define a "template" for planning outside these datesplanningHorizon : Period [0..1]Comments on the availability to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slots that may be associatedcomment : string [0..1]

Turtle Template

@prefix fhir: <http://hl7.org/fhir/> .doco


[ a fhir:Schedule;
  fhir:nodeRole fhir:treeRoot; # if this is the parser root

  # from Resource: .id, .meta, .implicitRules, and .language
  # from DomainResource: .text, .contained, .extension, and .modifierExtension
  fhir:Schedule.identifier [ Identifier ], ... ; # 0..* External Ids for this item
  fhir:Schedule.active [ boolean ]; # 0..1 Whether this schedule is in active use
  fhir:Schedule.serviceCategory [ CodeableConcept ], ... ; # 0..* High-level category
  fhir:Schedule.serviceType [ CodeableConcept ], ... ; # 0..* Specific service
  fhir:Schedule.specialty [ CodeableConcept ], ... ; # 0..* Type of specialty needed
  fhir:Schedule.actor [ Reference(Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole|RelatedPerson|Device|HealthcareService|
  Location) ], ... ; # 1..* Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for
  fhir:Schedule.planningHorizon [ Period ]; # 0..1 Period of time covered by schedule
  fhir:Schedule.comment [ string ]; # 0..1 Comments on availability
]

Changes since R3

Schedule
Schedule.active
  • Default Value "true" removed
Schedule.serviceCategory
  • Max Cardinality changed from 1 to *

See the Full Difference for further information

This analysis is available as XML or JSON.

See R3 <--> R4 Conversion Maps (status = 3 tests that all execute ok. All tests pass round-trip testing and all r3 resources are valid.)

Structure

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraintsdoco
.. Schedule TUDomainResourceA container for slots of time that may be available for booking appointments
Elements defined in Ancestors: id, meta, implicitRules, language, text, contained, extension, modifierExtension
... identifier Σ0..*IdentifierExternal Ids for this item
... active ?!Σ0..1booleanWhether this schedule is in active use
... serviceCategory Σ0..*CodeableConceptHigh-level category
Service category (Example)
... serviceType Σ0..*CodeableConceptSpecific service
Service type (Example)
... specialty Σ0..*CodeableConceptType of specialty needed
Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)
... actor Σ1..*Reference(Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | RelatedPerson | Device | HealthcareService | Location)Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for
... planningHorizon Σ0..1PeriodPeriod of time covered by schedule
... comment 0..1stringComments on availability

doco Documentation for this format

UML Diagram (Legend)

Schedule (DomainResource)External Ids for this itemidentifier : Identifier [0..*]Whether this schedule record is in active use or should not be used (such as was entered in error) (this element modifies the meaning of other elements)active : boolean [0..1]A broad categorization of the service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceCategory : CodeableConcept [0..*] « (Strength=Example)ServiceCategory?? »The specific service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceType : CodeableConcept [0..*] « (Strength=Example)ServiceType?? »The specialty of a practitioner that would be required to perform the service requested in this appointmentspecialty : CodeableConcept [0..*] « Additional details about where the content was created (e.g. clinical specialty). (Strength=Preferred)PracticeSettingCodeValueSet? »Slots that reference this schedule resource provide the availability details to these referenced resource(s)actor : Reference [1..*] « Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole| RelatedPerson|Device|HealthcareService|Location »The period of time that the slots that reference this Schedule resource cover (even if none exist). These cover the amount of time that an organization's planning horizon; the interval for which they are currently accepting appointments. This does not define a "template" for planning outside these datesplanningHorizon : Period [0..1]Comments on the availability to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slots that may be associatedcomment : string [0..1]

Turtle Template

@prefix fhir: <http://hl7.org/fhir/> .doco


[ a fhir:Schedule;
  fhir:nodeRole fhir:treeRoot; # if this is the parser root

  # from Resource: .id, .meta, .implicitRules, and .language
  # from DomainResource: .text, .contained, .extension, and .modifierExtension
  fhir:Schedule.identifier [ Identifier ], ... ; # 0..* External Ids for this item
  fhir:Schedule.active [ boolean ]; # 0..1 Whether this schedule is in active use
  fhir:Schedule.serviceCategory [ CodeableConcept ], ... ; # 0..* High-level category
  fhir:Schedule.serviceType [ CodeableConcept ], ... ; # 0..* Specific service
  fhir:Schedule.specialty [ CodeableConcept ], ... ; # 0..* Type of specialty needed
  fhir:Schedule.actor [ Reference(Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole|RelatedPerson|Device|HealthcareService|
  Location) ], ... ; # 1..* Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for
  fhir:Schedule.planningHorizon [ Period ]; # 0..1 Period of time covered by schedule
  fhir:Schedule.comment [ string ]; # 0..1 Comments on availability
]

Changes since Release 3

Schedule
Schedule.active
  • Default Value "true" removed
Schedule.serviceCategory
  • Max Cardinality changed from 1 to *

See the Full Difference for further information

This analysis is available as XML or JSON.

See R3 <--> R4 Conversion Maps (status = 3 tests that all execute ok. All tests pass round-trip testing and all r3 resources are valid.)

 

See the Profiles & Extensions and the alternate definitions: Master Definition XML + JSON, XML Schema/Schematron + JSON Schema, ShEx (for Turtle) + see the extensions & the dependency analysis

PathDefinitionTypeReference
Schedule.serviceCategory ExampleServiceCategory
Schedule.serviceType ExampleServiceType
Schedule.specialty Additional details about where the content was created (e.g. clinical specialty).PreferredPracticeSettingCodeValueSet

There is a strong desire that implementers of this resource should consider providing the resource in the iCalendar format as an alternative representation. Many 3rd party applications and component providers have parsers and user interface controls to display this information. This may lower the entry point to integrate outside the health-care specific applications, and into the consumer space. This would permit the easier creation of a mobile application that creates appointments in the devices native calendar.
The iCalendar specification can be found at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt .

Due to the dynamic nature of slots they are not included as a part of this resource.

It is anticipated that this resource is likely to be updated intermittently when the scope of slots is changed, i.e. to change the period of slots in the planning horizon. This could be performed each night to move the start and end date forward to keep the planning horizon as exactly 4 weeks.

The slot resource however is anticipated to be updated very regularly as the appointments that reference them are created/updated/cancelled.

Search parameters for this resource. The common parameters also apply. See Searching for more information about searching in REST, messaging, and services.

NameTypeDescriptionExpressionIn Common
activetokenIs the schedule in active useSchedule.active
actorreferenceThe individual(HealthcareService, Practitioner, Location, ...) to find a Schedule forSchedule.actor
(Practitioner, Device, Patient, HealthcareService, PractitionerRole, RelatedPerson, Location)
datedateSearch for Schedule resources that have a period that contains this date specifiedSchedule.planningHorizon
identifiertokenA Schedule IdentifierSchedule.identifier
service-categorytokenHigh-level categorySchedule.serviceCategory
service-typetokenThe type of appointments that can be booked into associated slot(s)Schedule.serviceType
specialtytokenType of specialty neededSchedule.specialty