Unique business identifiers assigned to this encounter by healthcare facilities, organizations, or systems for tracking and reference purposes across multiple systems

Example: [{"@type":"ClinicalIdentifier","value":"ENC-2024-789012","clinicalSystem":"custom"}]

Current state of the encounter in its lifecycle from planning through completion or cancellation

Values: planned, arrived, triaged, in-progress, onleave, finished, cancelled, entered-in-error, unknown

Example: "in-progress"

Classification of the encounter setting that distinguishes the care delivery context, intensity level, and expected duration - fundamental for resource allocation, billing, and care pathway determination

Values: ambulatory, emergency, field, home-health, inpatient, virtual, observation

Example: "ambulatory"

Specific categorization of the encounter that provides more granular detail than class - references standardized encounter type codes for scheduling, documentation, and reporting purposes

Example: [{"@type":"EncounterType","code":"AMB","label":"Ambulatory","class":"ambulatory"}]

Urgency level of the encounter that drives resource allocation, triage decisions, and expected response times in clinical workflow management

Values: routine, urgent, asap, stat

Example: "routine"

Reference to the patient who is the subject of this encounter and recipient of healthcare services

Temporal boundaries defining when the encounter occurred or is scheduled to occur - start time marks patient arrival or admission, end time marks departure or discharge

Example: {"@type":"Period","start":"2024-11-30T09:00:00Z","end":"2024-11-30T09:30:00Z"}

Actual or estimated duration of the encounter in minutes - can be recorded explicitly or calculated from period start and end times

Example: 30

Coded clinical reasons or chief complaints that motivated the encounter - supports clinical decision support, quality measurement, and population health analytics using standardized terminology

Example: [{"@type":"Coding","code":"386661006","system":"SNOMED-CT","display":"Fever"}]

Free-text narrative description of why the encounter occurred - captures patient-reported chief complaints or clinical indications that may not have standardized codes

Example: "Patient presents with persistent cough and fever for 3 days"

Reference to the healthcare organization or facility responsible for providing services during this encounter - the legal entity accountable for care delivery and documentation

Example: {"@type":"Facility","name":"City General Hospital"}

Reference to a parent or containing encounter when this encounter is a component of a larger care episode - enables hierarchical modeling of complex encounters like emergency visits leading to admissions

Whether the encounter is currently active and ongoing - true when status is in-progress or onleave, indicating the patient is currently receiving care or temporarily away but not discharged

Whether the encounter has been completed - true when status is finished, indicating all care activities have concluded and the patient has been discharged or visit has ended

Calculated duration in minutes derived from the difference between period start and end times - automatically computed when explicit length is not provided