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5.15 Resource Location - Content

This resource maintained by the Patient Administration Work Group

Details and position information for a physical place where services are provided and resources and participants may be stored, found, contained or accommodated.

This resource is referenced by Appointment, AppointmentResponse, AuditEvent, CarePlan, Claim, Contract, Device, DiagnosticOrder, DiagnosticReport, Encounter, HealthcareService, Immunization, List, MedicationDispense, Observation, Practitioner, Procedure, Provenance and Supply

5.15.3 Resource Content

 

Alternate definitions: Schema/Schematron, Resource Profile (XML, JSON)

5.15.3.1 Terminology Bindings

Path	Definition	Type	Reference
Location.mode	Indicates whether a resource instance represents a specific location or a class of locations	Required	http://hl7.org/fhir/location-mode
Location.type	Indicates the type of function performed at the location	Required	http://hl7.org/fhir/v3/vs/ServiceDeliveryLocationRoleType
Location.physicalType	Physical form of the location	Example	http://hl7.org/fhir/vs/location-physical-type
Location.status	Indicates whether the location is still in use	Required	http://hl7.org/fhir/location-status

5.15.4 Notes

• Multiple Organizations or Practitioners may provide services at a Location. These references are not kept in Location, but can be found in the models for Organization and Practitioner instead.
• Locations may range from whole buildings to cabinets; it is possible to relate smaller Locations to their containing bigger Location using the Location.partOf element.
• Location.position is expressed using the same syntax, datum and reference system as used in Google Earth's KML files, see Google/OGS's KML.

5.15.4.1 Location Mode

The Location.mode element can be used to indicate whether a Location resource represents a specific (potentially identifiable) Location ('instance'), or a class of Locations ('kind'). Especially Resources capturing orders, resource scheduling, plans and definitions may refer to Locations in 'kind' mode. For these domains, it is often not necessary to refer to a specific Location, but rather to a class of Locations. An example of this is found in planning, where we need to allocate an "isolation room" for a patient, or need to dispatch "an ambulance" at a certain time. In these cases it is not important exactly which isolation room or ambulance is allocated, and it is sufficient to just indicate a 'kind' of Location.

Note that 'kind' should not be used to represent Locations where an actual instance of a Location was involved, but identifying information is missing. E.g. when a patient arrived 'by ambulance', but it is not known by which ambulance, this should be represented using a Location in 'instance' mode with a missing identifier, not a Location of 'kind' ambulance.

Some of Location's data elements are only relevant when mode is 'instance' and should not be used when mode is 'kind':
(however this information could still be included if was relevant, such as when it is a generic item, but not globally generic, eg a Burgers MU ambulance)

• Location.identifier
• Location.telecom
• Location.address
• Location.position
• Location.status
• Location.managingOrganization

5.15.5 Example Location Heirachy

An example location heirachy should help give some guidance as to one example of how a location heirachy could look within a fictitious Hospital.
(The nesting here would be the "part-of" structure of the location)

Hospital A Building C (instance)
    East Wing (instance)
        Level 1 (instance)
            Reception (instance)
            Nurses Station EM-ns1 (instance)
                Medication Cupboard A (instance)
            Room 1 (instance)
                Room 1a (instance) - space in room separatable via a curtain
                    Bed 1a (instance) - always in this room
                Room 1b (instance)
                    Trolley 43 (instance) - moves about
                Room 1d (instance)
                    Trolley 19 (instance) - moves about
                Room 2 (instance)
                    ...
            Theatre EM-TA (instance)
            Coridor (generic)
        Level 2 (instance)
            Reception (instance)
                ...
            Nurses Station EM-ns1 (instance)
                Medication Cupboard A (instance)
            Coridor (generic)
Mobile Services (kind)
    Ambulance (kind)
        Ambulance AMB1 (instance)
        Ambulance AMB2 (instance)
	

Note that Wards/Departments are not part of this structure, these would form part of the Organizational Hierarchy.

5.15.6 Search Parameters

Search parameters for this resource. The common parameters also apply. See Searching for more information about searching in REST, messaging, and services.

Name	Type	Description	Paths
address	string	A (part of the) address of the location	Location.address
identifier	token	Unique code or number identifying the location to its users	Location.identifier
name	string	A (portion of the) name of the location	Location.name
near	token	The coordinates expressed as [lat],[long] (using the WGS84 datum, see notes) to find locations near to (servers may search using a square rather than a circle for efficiency)
near-distance	token	A distance quantity to limit the near search to locations within a specific distance
organization	reference	Searches for locations that are managed by the provided organization	Location.managingOrganization (Organization)
partof	reference	The location of which this location is a part	Location.partOf (Location)
status	token	Searches for locations with a specific kind of status	Location.status
type	token	A code for the type of location	Location.type