This class contains those properties which are common to several kinds of Encounters which involve an admission and discharge process. All but one (the ShortStay) of these types of Encounters last more than one day. Note that this class would not be implemented directly, rather the subtypes of this class would be implemented.

Contains properties common to multiple kinds of Encounters. This class is abstract, meaning that it would never be instantiated on its own, but rather one of the concrete subtypes (e.g., InpatientEncounter) would be instantiated.

A (perhaps artificial) grouping of encounters for administrative or financial purposes. There is no specific requirement that the encounters have anything particular in common.

The act of admitting a Patient into a facility or program. Admission: "A full stay. The formal acceptance by a hospital or other inpatient health care facility of a patient who is to be provided with room, board, and continuous nursing service in an area of the hospital or facility where patients generally reside at least overnight." - Mosby's Dental Dictionary.

An interaction between a patient and a practitioner in which the practitioner does not exercise independent judgement. For example, a lab test. The lab technician may generate results, but the physician issues the diagnosis.

A record of the agreement between the Patient and the Provider to meet at a scheduled time. "An arrangement to meet a person or be at a place at a certain time" - Dictionary.com "A booking of a healthcare event among patient(s), practitioner(s), related person(s) and/or device(s) for a specific date/time. This may result in one or more Encounter(s)." - HL7 FHIR, Appointment

"List of participants involved in the appointment." - HL7 FHIR, Appointment.participant

"A reply to an appointment request for a patient and/or practitioner(s), such as a confirmation or rejection." - HL7 FHIR, AppointmentResponse

A proposed or tentative course of action for the maintenance and restoration of health by the treatment and prevention of disease by trained and licensed professionals.

A census is an official count or enumeration of persons. In the hospital setting, this is the total number of patients admitted to the facility, generally exclusive of newborns. This count is typically taken at the same time each day, usually taken just before midnight. Censuses may be recorded by unit, ward, service, or the entire hospital or health care facility. This information is used, among many other purposes, to calculate an Average Daily Census, which is the average number of Patients per day in a hospital over a given period of time. This class represents the result of the enumeration, which may be stored as a simple number, or may be comprised of pointers to the actual Encounters included in the count.

Clinical Procedures provided and or performed for the patient during the Encounter.

The provision of healthcare-related service(s) within the context of an encounter.

An undesirable event experienced by a patient whilst undergoing a clinical procedure, especially if the event was caused by the procedure itself.

The act or process of grouping diagnosis that determined the nature and cause of a disease or injury through evaluation of patient history, examination, and review of laboratory data.

The release of a patient from a course of care.

Emergency is an encounter without a scheduled appointment and urgent clinical services are required.

An interaction between a patient and a practitioner under the auspices of a given organization for the purpose of providing healthcare-related service(s). It is important to understand that if the there is a change in provider or organization, by definition a new encounter will be generated. For example, if a patient is moved from Surgery to Post-Op, a new encounter is generated. Similarly, if a patient receives care from 2 nurses while in Post-Op, there will be 2 encounters.

"List of locations where the patient has been during this encounter." - HL7 FHIR, Encounter.location

A collection of encounters that can be aggregated based on a common clinically relevant factor such as the provider, diagnosis, health factor, or long-term problem. "...a Service Episode is the context in which the treatment or management of an arbitrary subset of a Patient s medical conditions occurs. The definition of the start time, stop time, and included events of a Service Episode is entirely arbitrary; it may include a single outpatient visit or a hospitalization, or extend over significant period of time, e.g., the duration of a pregnancy, or an oncology treatment regimen, or a cardiac episode from infarction through rehabilitation. A Service Episode may involve one or more Healthcare Organizations." - HL7 Version 2.8, PV1-53

A collection of like Encounters for multiple patients i.e. Group Therapy sessions. Note that each patient has its own Episode of Care.

Some organizations, particularly the VA, have programs where Patients whose conditions are such that they do not need inpatient care can be treated and monitored at their home. These Patients are admitted into the program if they meet certain criteria (ability to take care of themselves) and discharged from the program if their condition worsens and they are admitted into an inpatient or long-term care setting. This class represents the period during which the Patient is admitted into such a program.

"Hospice care is a type of care and philosophy of care that focuses on the palliation of a chronically ill, terminally ill or seriously ill patient's pain and symptoms, and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs. … Within the United States the term is largely defined by the practices of the Medicare system and other health insurance providers, which make hospice care available, either in an inpatient facility or at the patient's home, to patients with a terminal prognosis who are medically certified at hospice onset to have less than six months to live." - Wikepedia This class represents the period during which the Patient is admitted into a hospice care program.

An encounter during which the Patient stays for one or more nights in a hospital. This class represents the period during which the Patient is admitted into a hospital for care.

"Long-term care (LTC) is a variety of services which help meet both the medical and non-medical needs of people with a chronic illness or disability who cannot care for themselves for long periods. It is common for long-term care to provide custodial and non-skilled care, such as assisting with normal daily tasks like dressing, feeding, using the bathroom. Increasingly, LTC involves providing a level of medical care that requires the expertise of skilled practitioners to address the multiple chronic conditions associated with older populations." - Wikipedia This class represents the period during which the Patient is admitted into a Long Term Care program.

One or more encounters at one site within a specified length of time.

The act of transferring a patient from one location or responsible organization to another. Note that a transfer from organization to another will, by definition, trigger a new encounter. Note that a transfer from one location to another may trigger a new encounter depending on whether the responsible organization has changed. A movement from one bed within the same ward to another probably will not, but a movement from one ward to another probably would.

An action taken by a practitioner on the patient's behalf in which the patient is not present. For example, a radiologist reading an x-ray.