A patient visits his doctor to have his blood pressure checked. He does this every 6 months. If all goes well the doctor issues a repeat prescription for Valsartan, 80mg.
Assume this is a regular occurrence. Assume that our patient visits the same doctor at the same practice each time.
Which FHIR resources capture each step of the visit?
There are static FHIR resources that already exist in the clinic’s system. They might be:
– Patient
– Practitioner (the doctor)
– Location (the doctor’s office)
– Organization (the clinic itself)
– Medication (the drug the patient is usually prescribed)
– Condition (details of the patient’s existing high blood pressure diagnosis)
– MedicationStatement (to see the list of current meds)
Then there are resources created prior to the visit.
– Appointment (captures the date and time)
– Encounter (the visit itself)
And finally we have dynamic resources created during the visit, as the doctor makes notes.
– Observation (to store the blood pressure reading)
– More Observations (extra notes the doctor makes about the patient)
– MedicationRequest (the repeat prescription the doctor writes)
– MedicationDispense (to see when the prescription was filled)
– Claim (to capture insurance details if applicable)
That’s 14 FHIR resources — at least — to capture everything for a simple, everyday doctor’s visit.
Can you think of anything I left out?
(Thanks to those who left comments on LinkedIn for fleshing out some missing resources.)
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