Release 5

This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v5.0.0: R5 - STU). This is the current published version. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions . Page versions: R5 R4B R4 R3 R2

Patient Administration icon Work GroupMaturity Level: 5 Trial UseSecurity Category: Individual Compartments: Practitioner

Detailed Descriptions for the elements in the Practitioner resource.

Practitioner
Element IdPractitioner
Definition

A person who is directly or indirectly involved in the provisioning of healthcare or related services.

Short DisplayA person with a formal responsibility in the provisioning of healthcare or related services
Cardinality0..*
TypeDomainResource
Requirements

Need to track doctors, staff, locums etc. for both healthcare practitioners, funders, etc.

Summaryfalse
Practitioner.identifier
Element IdPractitioner.identifier
Definition

An identifier that applies to this person in this role.

Short DisplayAn identifier for the person as this agent
NoteThis is a business identifier, not a resource identifier (see discussion)
Cardinality0..*
TypeIdentifier
Requirements

Often, specific identities are assigned for the agent.

Summarytrue
Practitioner.active
Element IdPractitioner.active
Definition

Whether this practitioner's record is in active use.

Short DisplayWhether this practitioner's record is in active use
Cardinality0..1
Typeboolean
Is Modifiertrue (Reason: This element is labelled as a modifier because it is a status element that can indicate that a record should not be treated as valid)
Meaning if MissingThis resource is generally assumed to be active if no value is provided for the active element
Requirements

Need to be able to mark a practitioner record as not to be used because it was created in error.

Summarytrue
Comments

If the practitioner is not in use by one organization, then it should mark the period on the PractitonerRole with an end date (even if they are active) as they may be active in another role.

Practitioner.name
Element IdPractitioner.name
Definition

The name(s) associated with the practitioner.

Short DisplayThe name(s) associated with the practitioner
Cardinality0..*
TypeHumanName
Requirements

The name(s) that a Practitioner is known by. Where there are multiple, the name that the practitioner is usually known as should be used in the display.

Summarytrue
Comments

The selection of the use property should ensure that there is a single usual name specified, and others use the nickname (alias), old, or other values as appropriate.

In general, select the value to be used in the ResourceReference.display based on this:

  1. There is more than 1 name
  2. Use = usual
  3. Period is current to the date of the usage
  4. Use = official
  5. Other order as decided by internal business rules.
Practitioner.telecom
Element IdPractitioner.telecom
Definition

A contact detail for the practitioner, e.g. a telephone number or an email address.

Short DisplayA contact detail for the practitioner (that apply to all roles)
Cardinality0..*
TypeContactPoint
Requirements

Need to know how to reach a practitioner independent to any roles the practitioner may have.

Summarytrue
Comments

Person may have multiple ways to be contacted with different uses or applicable periods. May need to have options for contacting the person urgently and to help with identification. These typically will have home numbers, or mobile numbers that are not role specific.

Practitioner.gender
Element IdPractitioner.gender
Definition

Administrative Gender - the gender that the person is considered to have for administration and record keeping purposes.

Short Displaymale | female | other | unknown
Cardinality0..1
Terminology BindingAdministrativeGender (Required)
Typecode
Requirements

Needed to address the person correctly.

Summarytrue
Practitioner.birthDate
Element IdPractitioner.birthDate
Definition

The date of birth for the practitioner.

Short DisplayThe date on which the practitioner was born
Cardinality0..1
Typedate
Requirements

Needed for identification.

Summarytrue
Practitioner.deceased[x]
Element IdPractitioner.deceased[x]
Definition

Indicates if the practitioner is deceased or not.

Short DisplayIndicates if the practitioner is deceased or not
Cardinality0..1
Typeboolean|dateTime
[x] NoteSee Choice of Datatypes for further information about how to use [x]
Summarytrue
Comments

If there's no value in the instance, it means there is no statement on whether or not the practitioner is deceased. Most systems will interpret the absence of a value as a sign of the person being alive.

Practitioner.address
Element IdPractitioner.address
Definition

Address(es) of the practitioner that are not role specific (typically home address). Work addresses are not typically entered in this property as they are usually role dependent.

Short DisplayAddress(es) of the practitioner that are not role specific (typically home address)
Cardinality0..*
TypeAddress
Requirements

The home/mailing address of the practitioner is often required for employee administration purposes, and also for some rostering services where the start point (practitioners home) can be used in calculations.

Summarytrue
Comments

The PractitionerRole does not have an address value on it, as it is expected that the location property be used for this purpose (which has an address).

Practitioner.photo
Element IdPractitioner.photo
Definition

Image of the person.

Short DisplayImage of the person
Cardinality0..*
TypeAttachment
Requirements

Many EHR systems have the capability to capture an image of patients and personnel. Fits with newer social media usage too.

Summaryfalse
Practitioner.qualification
Element IdPractitioner.qualification
Definition

The official qualifications, certifications, accreditations, training, licenses (and other types of educations/skills/capabilities) that authorize or otherwise pertain to the provision of care by the practitioner.

For example, a medical license issued by a medical board of licensure authorizing the practitioner to practice medicine within a certain locality.

Short DisplayQualifications, certifications, accreditations, licenses, training, etc. pertaining to the provision of care
Cardinality0..*
Summaryfalse
Comments

The PractitionerRole.specialty defines the functional role that they are practicing at a given organization or location. Those specialties may or might not require a qualification, and are not defined on the practitioner.

Practitioner.qualification.identifier
Element IdPractitioner.qualification.identifier
Definition

An identifier that applies to this person's qualification.

Short DisplayAn identifier for this qualification for the practitioner
NoteThis is a business identifier, not a resource identifier (see discussion)
Cardinality0..*
TypeIdentifier
Requirements

Often, specific identities are assigned for the qualification.

Summaryfalse
Practitioner.qualification.code
Element IdPractitioner.qualification.code
Definition

Coded representation of the qualification.

Short DisplayCoded representation of the qualification
Cardinality1..1
Terminology Bindinghl7VS-degreeLicenseCertificate icon (Example)
TypeCodeableConcept
Summaryfalse
Practitioner.qualification.period
Element IdPractitioner.qualification.period
Definition

Period during which the qualification is valid.

Short DisplayPeriod during which the qualification is valid
Cardinality0..1
TypePeriod
Requirements

Qualifications are often for a limited period of time, and can be revoked.

Summaryfalse
Practitioner.qualification.issuer
Element IdPractitioner.qualification.issuer
Definition

Organization that regulates and issues the qualification.

Short DisplayOrganization that regulates and issues the qualification
Cardinality0..1
TypeReference(Organization)
Summaryfalse
Practitioner.communication
Element IdPractitioner.communication
Definition

A language which may be used to communicate with the practitioner, often for correspondence/administrative purposes.

The PractitionerRole.communication property should be used for publishing the languages that a practitioner is able to communicate with patients (on a per Organization/Role basis).

Short DisplayA language which may be used to communicate with the practitioner
Cardinality0..*
Summaryfalse
Comments

If no language is specified, this implies that the default local language is spoken. If you need to convey proficiency for multiple modes, then you need multiple Practitioner.Communication associations.

For animals, language is not a relevant field, and should be absent from the instance.

Practitioner.communication.language
Element IdPractitioner.communication.language
Definition

The ISO-639-1 alpha 2 code in lower case for the language, optionally followed by a hyphen and the ISO-3166-1 alpha 2 code for the region in upper case; e.g. "en" for English, or "en-US" for American English versus "en-AU" for Australian English.

Short DisplayThe language code used to communicate with the practitioner
Cardinality1..1
Terminology BindingAll Languages (Required)
Additional BindingsPurpose
Common LanguagesStarter Set
TypeCodeableConcept
Requirements

Most systems in multilingual countries will want to convey language. Not all systems actually need the regional dialect.

Summaryfalse
Comments

The structure aa-BB with this exact casing is one the most widely used notations for locale. However not all systems actually code this but instead have it as free text. Hence CodeableConcept instead of code as the data type.

Practitioner.communication.preferred
Element IdPractitioner.communication.preferred
Definition

Indicates whether or not the person prefers this language (over other languages he masters up a certain level).

Short DisplayLanguage preference indicator
Cardinality0..1
Typeboolean
Requirements

People that master multiple languages up to certain level may prefer one or more, i.e. feel more confident in communicating in a particular language making other languages sort of a fall back method.

Summaryfalse
Comments

This language is specifically identified for communicating directly with the practitioner (typically un-related to patient communications).