FHIR Patient Resource (R4)

Patient holds demographic and administrative information about an individual receiving care. Element table, search parameters, example JSON and FHIRPath for FHIR R4.

Overview

Patient holds demographic and administrative information about an individual receiving care. It is the anchor of most clinical data: Observation, Condition, Encounter and nearly every other clinical resource point back to a Patient through a subject or patient reference. Keep clinical facts in those resources rather than in Patient itself.

Elements

Element	Type	Cardinality	Description
Patient.identifier	Identifier	0..*	An identifier for this patient
Patient.active	boolean	0..1	Whether this patient's record is in active use
Patient.name	HumanName	0..*	A name associated with the patient
Patient.telecom	ContactPoint	0..*	A contact detail for the individual
Patient.gender	code	0..1	male \| female \| other \| unknown
Patient.birthDate	date	0..1	The date of birth for the individual
Patient.deceased[x]	boolean \| dateTime	0..1	Indicates if the individual is deceased or not
Patient.address	Address	0..*	An address for the individual
Patient.maritalStatus	CodeableConcept	0..1	Marital (civil) status of a patient
Patient.multipleBirth[x]	boolean \| integer	0..1	Whether patient is part of a multiple birth
Patient.photo	Attachment	0..*	Image of the patient
Patient.contact	BackboneElement	0..*	A contact party (e.g. guardian, partner, friend) for the patient
Patient.contact.id	String	0..1	Unique id for inter-element referencing
Patient.contact.extension	Extension	0..*	Additional content defined by implementations
Patient.contact.modifierExtension	Extension	0..*	Extensions that cannot be ignored even if unrecognized
Patient.contact.relationship	CodeableConcept	0..*	The kind of relationship
Patient.contact.name	HumanName	0..1	A name associated with the contact person
Patient.contact.telecom	ContactPoint	0..*	A contact detail for the person
Patient.contact.address	Address	0..1	Address for the contact person
Patient.contact.gender	code	0..1	male \| female \| other \| unknown
Patient.contact.organization	Reference	0..1	Organization that is associated with the contact
Patient.contact.period	Period	0..1	The period during which this contact person or organization is valid to be contacted relating to this patient
Patient.communication	BackboneElement	0..*	A language which may be used to communicate with the patient about his or her health
Patient.communication.id	String	0..1	Unique id for inter-element referencing
Patient.communication.extension	Extension	0..*	Additional content defined by implementations
Patient.communication.modifierExtension	Extension	0..*	Extensions that cannot be ignored even if unrecognized
Patient.communication.language	CodeableConcept	1..1	The language which can be used to communicate with the patient about his or her health
Patient.communication.preferred	boolean	0..1	Language preference indicator
Patient.generalPractitioner	Reference	0..*	Patient's nominated primary care provider
Patient.managingOrganization	Reference	0..1	Organization that is the custodian of the patient record
Patient.link	BackboneElement	0..*	Link to another patient resource that concerns the same actual person
Patient.link.id	String	0..1	Unique id for inter-element referencing
Patient.link.extension	Extension	0..*	Additional content defined by implementations
Patient.link.modifierExtension	Extension	0..*	Extensions that cannot be ignored even if unrecognized
Patient.link.other	Reference	1..1	The other patient or related person resource that the link refers to
Patient.link.type	code	1..1	replaced-by \| replaces \| refer \| seealso

Example JSON (R4)

{
  "resourceType": "Patient",
  "id": "example",
  "identifier": [
    {
      "system": "http://hospital.example.org/mrn",
      "value": "12345"
    }
  ],
  "active": true,
  "name": [
    {
      "use": "official",
      "family": "Smith",
      "given": [
        "John",
        "Michael"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "telecom": [
    {
      "system": "phone",
      "value": "555-0100",
      "use": "home"
    }
  ],
  "gender": "male",
  "birthDate": "1985-03-12",
  "address": [
    {
      "use": "home",
      "line": [
        "123 Main St"
      ],
      "city": "Anytown",
      "state": "CA",
      "postalCode": "90210"
    }
  ]
}

FHIRPath

Patient.name.where(use='official').family — Official family name
Patient.telecom.where(system='phone').value — All phone numbers
Patient.identifier.where(system='http://hospital.example.org/mrn').value — Medical record number for one assigning system
Patient.birthDate — Date of birth (a partial date such as 1985 is valid)

Common validation errors

Writing name as an object instead of an array. Patient.name is 0..*, so it must be [ { … } ].
Putting the full name in family. Use family for the surname and given (an array) for first and middle names.
Sending birthDate as 03/12/1985. FHIR dates are ISO 8601: YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD.
Using a free-text gender such as "Male". gender is a code from administrative-gender: male | female | other | unknown (lower-case).
Omitting identifier.system, which makes the value ambiguous across organizations.

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