DSTU2

This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v1.0.2: DSTU 2). 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

5.29 Resource Schedule - Content

Patient Administration Work GroupMaturity Level: 1Compartments: Device, Patient, Practitioner, RelatedPerson

A container for slot(s) of time that may be available for booking appointments.

5.29.1 Scope and Usage

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 also greatly assists where access to the appointments would not be permitted for security or privacy reasons, and still being able to determine if an appointment might be available.

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

5.29.1.1 Context

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 analog 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.

5.29.1.2 Actor - What the schedule applies to

The schedule belongs to a single owner, the actor. This is normally a HealthcareService, Practitioner, Location or Device. When booking an appointment, multiple schedules may need to be checked depending on the configuration of the system.

If an appointment has 2 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.

5.29.1.3 Checking availability - Searching

When checking availability for an appointment, the creator of the appointment should check that the see what schedules are applicable, then check for available slots within these schedules.

The searching could be done via the properties of the referenced actors, such as the ServiceCategory on the HealthcareService, or the Address on a Location.

The type property can be used to filter the types of appointments that can be booked within the appointment. These can be filtered down further by specifying types on the slots too.
The terminology bound to this property will be the same as that used on appointment and slot too.

If all slots are busy, the caller could find some slots that they believe are close enough, and request for the appointment in these slot(s)
(the appointment may be given a higher precedence and allocated in an overbooked status if business rules permit)

This resource is referenced by slot

5.29.2 Resource Content

Structure

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraintsdoco
.. Schedule DomainResourceA container for slot(s) of time that may be available for booking appointments
... identifier Σ0..*IdentifierExternal Ids for this item
... type 0..*CodeableConceptThe schedule type can be used for the categorization of healthcare services or other appointment types
Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)
... actor Σ1..1Reference(Patient | Practitioner | RelatedPerson | Device | HealthcareService | Location)The resource this Schedule resource is providing availability information for. These are expected to usually be one of HealthcareService, Location, Practitioner, Device, Patient or RelatedPerson
... planningHorizon Σ0..1PeriodThe period of time that the slots that are attached to 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 dates
... comment 0..1stringComments on the availability to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot(s) that may be associated

doco Documentation for this format

Structure

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraintsdoco
.. Schedule DomainResourceA container for slot(s) of time that may be available for booking appointments
... identifier Σ0..*IdentifierExternal Ids for this item
... type 0..*CodeableConceptThe schedule type can be used for the categorization of healthcare services or other appointment types
Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)
... actor Σ1..1Reference(Patient | Practitioner | RelatedPerson | Device | HealthcareService | Location)The resource this Schedule resource is providing availability information for. These are expected to usually be one of HealthcareService, Location, Practitioner, Device, Patient or RelatedPerson
... planningHorizon Σ0..1PeriodThe period of time that the slots that are attached to 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 dates
... comment 0..1stringComments on the availability to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot(s) that may be associated

doco Documentation for this format

 

Alternate definitions: Schema/Schematron, Resource Profile (XML, JSON), Questionnaire

5.29.2.1 Terminology Bindings

PathDefinitionTypeReference
Schedule.type Additional details about where the content was created (e.g. clinical specialty)PreferredPractice Setting Code Value Set

5.29.3 Notes:

5.29.3.1 Interaction with other Standards

The strong desire is that implementers of this resource should consider providing this 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 .

5.29.3.2 Slots - not a contained resource

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.

5.29.4 Search Parameters

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

NameTypeDescriptionPaths
actorreferenceThe individual(HealthcareService, Practitioner, Location, ...) to find a Schedule forSchedule.actor
(Device, Location, HealthcareService, Patient, Practitioner, RelatedPerson)
datedateSearch for Schedule resources that have a period that contains this date specifiedSchedule.planningHorizon
identifiertokenA Schedule IdentifierSchedule.identifier
typetokenThe type of appointments that can be booked into associated slot(s)Schedule.type