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: Patient Compartments: Patient, RelatedPerson

Detailed Descriptions for the elements in the RelatedPerson resource.

RelatedPerson
Element IdRelatedPerson
Definition

Information about a person that is involved in a patient's health or the care for a patient, but who is not the target of healthcare, nor has a formal responsibility in the care process.

Short DisplayA person that is related to a patient, but who is not a direct target of care
Cardinality0..*
TypeDomainResource
Requirements

Need to track persons related to the patient or the healthcare process.

Summaryfalse
RelatedPerson.identifier
Element IdRelatedPerson.identifier
Definition

Identifier for a person within a particular scope.

Short DisplayA human identifier for this person
NoteThis is a business identifier, not a resource identifier (see discussion)
Cardinality0..*
TypeIdentifier
Requirements

People are known by a variety of ids. Some institutions maintain several, and most collect identifiers for exchange with other organizations concerning the patient. Examples are national person identifier and local identifier.

Summarytrue
Comments

RelatedPerson identifiers might not be unique across instances within a system, as a single human individual may be represented as many different RelatedPerson resources with different roles, periods, or relationships.

RelatedPerson.active
Element IdRelatedPerson.active
Definition

Whether this related person record is in active use.

Short DisplayWhether this related person'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 related person record as not to be used, such as if it was created in error.

Summarytrue
Comments

This element is labeled as a modifier because it may be used to mark that the resource was created in error.

RelatedPerson.patient
Element IdRelatedPerson.patient
Definition

The patient this person is related to.

Short DisplayThe patient this person is related to
Cardinality1..1
TypeReference(Patient)
Requirements

We need to know which patient this RelatedPerson is related to.

Summarytrue
RelatedPerson.relationship
Element IdRelatedPerson.relationship
Definition

The nature of the relationship between the related person and the patient.

Short DisplayThe relationship of the related person to the patient
Cardinality0..*
Terminology BindingPatient Relationship Type (Preferred)
TypeCodeableConcept
Requirements

We need to know the relationship with the patient since it influences the interpretation of the information attributed to this person.

Summarytrue
Comments

The directionality of the relationship is from the RelatedPerson to the Patient. For example, if the Patient is a child, and the RelatedPerson is the mother, the relationship would be PRN (parent) or MTH (mother).

RelatedPerson.name
Element IdRelatedPerson.name
Definition

A name associated with the person.

Short DisplayA name associated with the person
Cardinality0..*
TypeHumanName
Requirements

Related persons need to be identified by name, but it is uncommon to need details about multiple other names for that person.

Summarytrue
RelatedPerson.telecom
Element IdRelatedPerson.telecom
Definition

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

Short DisplayA contact detail for the person
Cardinality0..*
TypeContactPoint
Requirements

People have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.

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 also to help with identification.

RelatedPerson.gender
Element IdRelatedPerson.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 for identification of the person, in combination with (at least) name and birth date.

Summarytrue
RelatedPerson.birthDate
Element IdRelatedPerson.birthDate
Definition

The date on which the related person was born.

Short DisplayThe date on which the related person was born
Cardinality0..1
Typedate
Summarytrue
RelatedPerson.address
Element IdRelatedPerson.address
Definition

Address where the related person can be contacted or visited.

Short DisplayAddress where the related person can be contacted or visited
Cardinality0..*
TypeAddress
Requirements

Need to keep track where the related person can be contacted per postal mail or visited.

Summarytrue
RelatedPerson.photo
Element IdRelatedPerson.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 persons. Fits with newer social media usage too.

Summaryfalse
RelatedPerson.period
Element IdRelatedPerson.period
Definition

The period of time during which this relationship is or was active. If there are no dates defined, then the interval is unknown.

Short DisplayPeriod of time that this relationship is considered valid
Cardinality0..1
TypePeriod
Summaryfalse
Comments

If an individual has a relationship with a patient over multiple, non-adjacent periods, there should be a distinct RelatedPerson instance for each period. For example, if a person is a roommate for a period of time, moves out, and is later a roommate with the same person again, you would have two RelatedPerson instances.

RelatedPerson.communication
Element IdRelatedPerson.communication
Definition

A language which may be used to communicate with the related person about the patient's health.

Short DisplayA language which may be used to communicate with the related person about the patient's health
Cardinality0..*
Requirements

If a related person does not speak the local language, interpreters may be required, so languages spoken and proficiency is an important things to keep track of both for patient and other persons of interest.

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 RelatedPerson.Communication associations. If the RelatedPerson does not speak the default local language, then the Interpreter Required Standard can be used to explicitly declare that an interpreter is required.

RelatedPerson.communication.language
Element IdRelatedPerson.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 which can be used to communicate with the related person about the patient's health
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.

RelatedPerson.communication.preferred
Element IdRelatedPerson.communication.preferred
Definition

Indicates whether or not the related person prefers this language (over other languages he or she 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 healthcare information.