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\[%settitle Administration Module%\] \[%file newheader%\] \[%file newnavbar%\]

| Responsible Owner: Work Group [\[%wgt pa%\]]([%wg pa%]) | [Standards Status](versions#std-process):[Informative](versions#std-process) |
| --- | --- |

## Administration Module

### Introduction

The Administrative module covers the base data that is then linked into the other modules for clinical content, finance/billing, workflow, etc. It is built on the FHIR technology platform modules.

Before any clinical data can be recorded, the basic information of the patient must be recorded, and then often the basis of the interaction (such as an encounter).

### Index

| 
-   [Patient](patient)
-   [RelatedPerson](relatedperson)
-   [Person](person)
-   [PersonalRelationship](https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/admin-incubator/StructureDefinition-PersonalRelationship.html)
-   [Group](group)
-   [Practitioner](practitioner)
-   [PractitionerRole](practitionerrole)
-   [Account](account)

 | 

-   [Organization](organization)
-   [OrganizationAffiliation](organizationaffiliation)
-   [Location](location)
-   [HealthcareService](healthcareservice)
-   [Endpoint](endpoint)
-   [Schedule](schedule)
-   [Slot](slot)
-   [SpecimenDefinition](specimendefinition)

 | 

-   [EpisodeOfCare](episodeofcare)
-   [Encounter](encounter)
-   [EncounterHistory](https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/admin-incubator/StructureDefinition-EncounterHistory.html)
-   [Appointment](appointment)
-   [AppointmentResponse](appointmentresponse)
-   [Flag](flag)
-   [ObservationDefinition](observationdefinition)

 | 

-   [BiologicallyDerivedProduct](biologicallyderivedproduct)
-   [NutritionProduct](nutritionproduct)
-   [Device](device)
-   [DeviceDefinition](devicedefinition)
-   [DeviceMetric](devicemetric)
-   [Substance](substance)
-   [InventoryItem](https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/oo-incubator/StructureDefinition-InventoryItem.html)

 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |

#### Patient Registers

Resources that contain details of people and animals that are either receiving care, or are associated with these subjects. Many other resources refer back to these as either the subject of care, or are somehow involved in that patient's record.

\[%res-item Patient%\] \[%res-item RelatedPerson%\] \[%res-item Person%\] \[%res-item Group%\]

| **Name** | **Aliases** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |

![Image showing the relationship between resources representing people](administration-module-person.png)

\[%impl-note%\] [Patient linking](patient#links) should also be considered when evaluating searches with references to other resources. e.g., searching for a patient's conditions for a patient.  
At present the specification does not define if the links should be also followed to include conditions that reference the linked patients too. We are currently seeking feedback on this. \[%end-note%\] \[%impl-note%\] The Person resource may be used as a centralized register of people that may eventually be involved in healthcare, and could be used as the central core demographics register.  
However, the fields/values in Person are duplicated in the other resources, and in many cases the Person resource will be hosted on external systems. \[%end-note%\]

##### Representing Households and Personal Relationships

![Image showing the administration module references between person based resources](administration-module-relationships.png)

There are many use cases that require providing and tracking care to households, families, tribes, villages, shared accommodations, etc.

Within these collections of people there can be quite complex networks of relationships between the members.

[Group](group) resources representing households are able to act collectively, however groups of this kind can only contain Patients and RelatedPersons (and potentially other Groups).

The [Group](group) resource is used to collect all the members of the household, and within that resource the `member.involvement` property is used to describe the role or relationship of the individual (member) has with the group, not with other members of the group.

The relationship between the members of the group can be quite complex, and transient over time, and is recorded using the [PersonalRelationship](https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/admin-incubator/StructureDefinition-PersonalRelationship.html) resource, which connects 2 members of the group together (only members of type [Patient](patient), [RelatedPerson](relatedperson)).

The [PersonalRelationship](https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/admin-incubator/StructureDefinition-PersonalRelationship.html) resource can also be used outside the group, in these cases it can also reference non group members, including [Person](person) resources.

Some use cases might require a [PersonalRelationship](https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/admin-incubator/StructureDefinition-PersonalRelationship.html) resource which can overlap with the relationship defined inside the [RelatedPerson](relatedperson) resource.

[PersonalRelationship](https://build.fhir.org/ig/HL7/admin-incubator/StructureDefinition-PersonalRelationship.html) can be used to document "possible/suspected" relationships, such as a doctor recording that 2 people may be related, or in an evacuation centre trying to locate and connect people may record possible connections (individuals may be unconscious).

##### Aggregate Populations

The Group resource should be used when representing an aggregate population, where the system is not tracking the individual members. Examples of aggregate populations include households, a tribe, workers at a job site, or attendees at a sporting event.

#### Clinical / Financial Categorization Resources

Most clinical activities occur grouped in some way. Long term care is typically covered by an EpisodeOfCare, whereas short term care is covered by encounters. Account associates the tracking of transactions back to a Patient (or other resource). Flag is just used to highlight a warning or other notification about a patient (or other resource)

\[%res-item EpisodeOfCare%\] \[%res-item Encounter%\] \[%res-item Account%\] \[%res-item Flag%\]

| **Name** | **Aliases** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |

![Image showing the administration interactions](administration-module-interactions.png)

\[%impl-note%\] Resources shown with a dotted box are described in other sections of the specification: `Coverage` and `Claim` are from the [section on Finance](financial-module). \[%end-note%\] \[%impl-note%\] This diagram shows the relationships between resource types. Relationships between instances of resources may include references to multiple instances of the same type. For example, an Encounter and an Account for the same human being may reference separate Patient resource instances, as noted in `Account.subject`. Those Patient resources should be linked using `Patient.link` with a type of `seealso`. \[%end-note%\]

#### Service Provider Directory Resources

Service Provider Directory resources are usually stored in the administration section of applications, and may even be synchronized from external systems.

\[%res-item Organization%\] \[%res-item Location%\] \[%res-item Practitioner%\] \[%res-item PractitionerRole%\] \[%res-item HealthcareService%\] \[%res-item Endpoint%\] \[%res-item OrganizationAffiliation%\] \[%res-item InsurancePlan%\] \[%res-item InsuranceProduct%\]

| **Name** | **Aliases** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |

![Image showing the provider directory resources](administration-module-prov-dir.png)

#### Scheduling and Appointments

The Scheduling/Appointment resources permit the planning of encounters to occur and follow on with other clinical activities.

\[%res-item Schedule%\] \[%res-item Slot%\] \[%res-item Appointment%\] \[%res-item AppointmentResponse%\]

| **Name** | **Aliases** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |

![Image showing the scheduling interactions](administration-module-scheduling.png)

When the scheduling resources need to identify the specific activity or service that is being scheduled, they may use either a HealthcareService or a coding to represent that activity.

#### Devices and Substances

Other assets are often registered in the administration system, and maintained as master files.  
Refer to the [device module](device-module) for additional details.

\[%res-item Device%\] \[%res-item DeviceDefinition%\] \[%res-item DeviceMetric%\] \[%res-item Substance%\]

| **Name** | **Aliases** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |

#### Research Studies and Subjects

Resources that capture information about research studies, and who is participating in them.

![Image showing the research resource relationships](administration-module-research.png)

\[%res-item ResearchStudy%\] \[%res-item ResearchSubject%\]

| **Name** | **Aliases** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |

\[%impl-note%\] The episode and study properties are through standard extensions, and servers might not implement suitable search parameters on these extensions (still to be defined).  
If an encounter has a mix of research and non research content, recommend creating 2 encounters in the system, however could derive that information Based on the presence of the extension on the obs/diagnosticreport/immunization etc. which then feeds to episodeofcare and onto account \[%end-note%\]

### Security and Privacy

Patient privacy is handled with security labels and tags in the Resource [Meta](resource#Meta) property. This is the standard way in which that the FHIR specification provides this supporting information to a sub-system that implements it (which is not defined by FHIR).

One of the more common use cases is for marking a patient as being a [celebrity](security-labels).

Note that privacy considerations apply to Person, Practitioner, RelatedPerson and PersonalRelationship records in addition to Patient's.

While Organization, Location, Device and other non-person-identifying records are generally subject to less stringent security precautions, such data must still be protected to avoid safety issues (e.g., someone maliciously changing the ingredients associated with a drug to cause/fail to cause alerts)

Devices can be linked to Patients. If this occurs, they must be protected as any other patient-linked element

For more general considerations, see [the Security and Privacy module](secpriv-module).

#### Representing User Identities

When considering how a User Identity could be represented in FHIR resources:

-   Systems MAY use .identifier on the Patient, RelatedPerson, Practitioner or Person resources for user identities.
-   When using a Person resource, this identifier MAY be duplicated to the other related resources, however is not required.
-   User identities MAY be handled completely outside of the FHIR and not represented on FHIR resources at all.
-   DO NOT use .telecom properties to represent user identities.

Example Identifier for a User Identity:

"identifier": \[
{
    "type": {
    "coding": \[
        {
        "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v2-0203",
        "code": "USER",
        "display": "User Name"
        }
    \]
    },
    "value": "username@example.org"
}\]

\[%impl-note%\]

Some systems may use e-mail as a unique user identifier. Other systems may use e-mail as one piece of potentially uniquely identifying information. And other systems may use it for communication (where communication may be to validate identity, or for other purposes).

If an e-mail is used as both a user identifier and as a method of communication, then you'd put the same e-mail in both spots (identifier and telecom).

Also, consider that not all individuals that need to be identified may have e-mails, for example, kids in a pediatric setting.

\[%end-note%\] \[%impl-note%\]

The FHIR SMART App Launch specification MAY refer to a FHIR Patient, RelatedPerson, Practitioner, PractitionerRole or Person resource instance in its `fhirUser` claim.

\[%end-note%\]

### Common Use Cases

Administration Resources are cornerstone resources that are used by clinical and other domains of the FHIR Standard.

-   **Managing a Master Record of a Patient and a Person** (e.g., MPI)  
    A [Patient](patient) resource is used to describe patient demographic information and any updates to it. It can be used to communicate [Patient](patient) information to other systems (e.g., other registries, clinical, ancillary and financial systems). Some systems distinguish the Patient Registry (or Client Registry) from the Person Registry. A [Person](person) resource is a base for the Person Registry system. The Patient/Person Management use case includes creation, update, as well as merge/unmerge and link/unlink scenarios.
-   **Managing a Master Record of a Provider and Service Catalogue** (e.g., Provider Registry, Service Directory)  
    A [Practitioner](practitioner) resource is a base resource for enabling the registry of individuals, related to providing health care services. Other resources, such as [Organization](organization), [Location](location), [HealthcareService](healthcareservice), are creating a complete picture of where, how and by whom the care services are offered to a patient. The resources can be used for managing the master record or as a reference in clinical resources to inform about participants and places for various clinical resources.
-   **Managing Other Administrative Records**  
    The Administration domain of the FHIR standard includes creation and update of [Device](device) and [Substance](substance) records. Resources can be used for managing a master record or communicating its information to other systems.
-   **Enabling Patient Profiles, Clinical Reporting and Connecting Clinical Records**  
    Administration Resources are referred to by almost all clinical resources. Querying systems, using the references to Administration Resources enables the creation of profiles and reports of various complexities.
-   **Enabling Clinical Grouping and Financial Reporting**  
    Other use cases are included in the roadmap of resources, developed by the Patient Administration group. The roadmap section lists plans and updates of the current work.

### Developmental Roadmap

The Patient Administration is currently working through resources that support:

-   Encounters and Scheduling _(enhance maturity of encounters and further develop in/outpatient scheduling)_
-   Service Provider Directory _(in co-ordination with the Argonaut Provider Directory group)_
-   Financial Management interactions _(account/coverage, then charge item, which links administration to billing)_

Many of the administrative resources are part of the core resources that most systems use first and have formed the basis for most people's first experiences with FHIR.  
However this limited exposure has still to be proven in all contexts, such as veterinary, public health and clinical research.

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