Patient encounter
Give each interaction between patient and provider one clear record of when, where and with whom it happened, to which orders, documents and charges can be linked.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
2 bundles · 2 layers · 4 findings · 8 questions
Encounter frame When and where the interaction happened.
Time and place
Period, class, reason and locations.
Period and class
Start, end, class and reason of the encounter.
- What are the start and end of this encounter, and what is its class, such as outpatient, inpatient or remote?
- What reason for this encounter was recorded at its start?
Locations
Locations occupied during the encounter.
- Which locations did the patient occupy during this encounter, and for which periods?
Accountability and outcome Who took part and how the encounter ended.
Participants and discharge
Participants, discharge and links.
Participants
Practitioners with roles and periods.
- Which practitioners took part in this encounter, in which roles and periods?
- Who was the responsible practitioner of this encounter at discharge?
Links and discharge
Discharge disposition and linked records.
- What discharge disposition was recorded for this encounter?
- Which orders, documents and charges are linked to this encounter?
- Which earlier encounter or episode of care does this encounter belong to?
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Enterprise profiles
- Category
- Enterprise subject
- Entry kind
- subject
- Domain
- EnterpriseHCP
- Industry
- Healthcare provider
- Tags
- EM-HCP-03W-INDsubjectEncounterEncounterLocationEncounterParticipantAdmissionDischarge
What it is Filled
An interaction between a patient and a provider: an outpatient visit, an admission, a stay or a remote contact, with its period, location, participants, reason and discharge. Clinical findings and orders are linked, not stored in the encounter.
Why it exists Filled
Give each interaction between patient and provider one clear record of when, where and with whom it happened, to which orders, documents and charges can be linked.
Distinguishing features Filled
- An encounter records the interaction, while clinical findings live in linked records.
- Ward transfers are location periods within one encounter unless local policy says otherwise.
- Billing cases are linked to encounters, not identical with them.
- Participants carry roles and periods for accountability.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Discharge a patient or change an encounter status without clinical authority.
- Merge encounters for billing convenience.
- Give clinical advice based on the encounter record.
Only with a human decision
- Admission and discharge decisions are made by authorized clinicians.
- Corrections of encounter periods after closure require responsible staff.
May
- Summarize an encounter's timeline from linked records.
- Flag encounters without an end time or a responsible practitioner.
- Prepare discharge paperwork drafts for clinician review.
Moral aspects Filled
- Encounter data reveals where and when a person received care.
- Errors in encounter records can affect the continuity of care.
Who is affected
- Patients
- Clinicians and nurses
- Payers of care
Owners Filled
Steward
The medical director who answers for the record of care delivery.
Master systems
- Patient administration system
- Electronic health record system
Links to other meta-models Filled
neighbor
- EM-HCP-01
- EM-HCP-02
- EM-HCP-05
- EM-HCP-08
- EM-FAC-01
- EM-FIN-03
references
- WM-ACT-018 - conceptual-candidate
- WM-ACT-014 - conceptual-candidate
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- An encounter has an identifier unique within the provider, often called a visit or case number.
- It references exactly one patient record.
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Enterprise record contour: physical properties belong to referenced world models.
Recognition required Filled
- Records show a patient, a period, a class, locations and participants.
- An encounter must be distinguished from an appointment, an episode of care and a billing case.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- The contour supports bed and location tracking, accountability and linking of care records.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Wrong location or patient data can send staff or results to the wrong place.
- Encounters left open distort occupancy and billing.
Standards and interfaces optional Filled
- HL7 International publishes the FHIR Encounter resource.
- IHE publishes integration profiles for patient administration across systems.
Context of use required Filled
- The contour is used in hospitals, clinics, emergency services and telehealth.
- Hospital reporting rules may define encounter categories.
Sources Filled
- HL7 FHIR: Encounter resource
- openEHR: composition context and care setting
- Admission, discharge and transfer practice
- HL7 FHIR R4 Encounter resource - Checked live (HTTP 200) on 2026-10-21.
- HL7 FHIR R4 Provenance resource - Checked live (HTTP 200) on 2026-10-21.
Open questions
- When does a transfer between wards create a new encounter and when only a location change?
- How are the encounter class and service type kept apart from billing categories?
- Which participant roles are needed for accountability?
- Settle the boundary and the reuse, extend or new decision against the current specifications.
- Confirm the semantic crosswalk, rights and source mastership.
- Choose immutable references and run fixture checks before claiming publication readiness.
Machine files
Provenance
enterprise research programme · published-partial
Built from: enterprise/models/em-hcp-03/brief.json, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/em-hcp-03.json