5.30 Resource Slot - Content

5.30.1 Scope and Usage

Slot resources are used to provide time-slots that can be booked using an appointment. They do not provide any information about appointments that are available, just the time, and optionally what the time can be used for. These are effectively spaces of free/busy time.
Slots can also be marked as busy without having appointments associated.

A slot can have more than one appointment allocated to it. A scheduling system may permit multiple allocations up to a specific number of places. An example of this type of usage could be where the slot is being used for a group service that permits 5 participants at the same time.

A slot can be marked as over-booked indicating that there are too many appointments allocated to it.

In some situations a service may have a specific set of slots reserved for specific uses, such as "walk-ins" or a specific organization has a "standing booking" for Thursday mornings. These should be represented using the type field with a specified and agreed value.
Security Permissions or specific business rules on the system could enforce that only eligible appointments are allocated to them.

If a service had a weekly schedule created that permitted eight 1 hour appointments each day of a working week (Monday - Friday), this would be constructed by a single Schedule resource with the dates for the start and end of the week set, and then 40 (5x8) Slot resources associated with it.
As appointments fill up the schedule, these slots would individually be marked as busy as the appointments are filled into the slots.
The slots in a schedule do not need to be the same size, and can be different for different days of the week.
Slot instances do not have any recurrence information included. If recurring information is desired, this will be managed outside these resources, or included as extensions.

• Structure
• UML
• XML
• JSON
• All

Structure

Name	Flags	Card.	Type	Description & Constraints
Slot			DomainResource	A slot of time on a schedule that may be available for booking appointments
identifier	Σ	0..*	Identifier	External Ids for this item
type		0..1	CodeableConcept	The type of appointments that can be booked into this slot (ideally this would be an identifiable service - which is at a location, rather than the location itself). If provided then this overrides the value provided on the availability resource Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)
schedule	Σ	1..1	Reference(Schedule)	The schedule resource that this slot defines an interval of status information
freeBusyType	Σ	1..1	code	busy | free | busy-unavailable | busy-tentative SlotStatus (Required)
start	Σ	1..1	instant	Date/Time that the slot is to begin
end	Σ	1..1	instant	Date/Time that the slot is to conclude
overbooked		0..1	boolean	This slot has already been overbooked, appointments are unlikely to be accepted for this time
comment		0..1	string	Comments on the slot to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot
Documentation for this format

<Slot xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir"> 
 <!-- from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language -->
 <!-- from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension -->
 <identifier><!-- 0..* Identifier External Ids for this item --></identifier>
 <type><!-- 0..1 CodeableConcept The type of appointments that can be booked into this slot (ideally this would be an identifiable service - which is at a location, rather than the location itself). If provided then this overrides the value provided on the availability resource --></type>
 <schedule><!-- 1..1 Reference(Schedule) The schedule resource that this slot defines an interval of status information --></schedule>
 <freeBusyType value="[code]"/><!-- 1..1 busy | free | busy-unavailable | busy-tentative -->
 <start value="[instant]"/><!-- 1..1 Date/Time that the slot is to begin -->
 <end value="[instant]"/><!-- 1..1 Date/Time that the slot is to conclude -->
 <overbooked value="[boolean]"/><!-- 0..1 This slot has already been overbooked, appointments are unlikely to be accepted for this time -->
 <comment value="[string]"/><!-- 0..1 Comments on the slot to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot -->
</Slot>

{
  "resourceType" : "Slot",
  // from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language
  // from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension
  "identifier" : [{ Identifier }], // External Ids for this item
  "type" : { CodeableConcept }, // The type of appointments that can be booked into this slot (ideally this would be an identifiable service - which is at a location, rather than the location itself). If provided then this overrides the value provided on the availability resource
  "schedule" : { Reference(Schedule) }, // R!  The schedule resource that this slot defines an interval of status information
  "freeBusyType" : "<code>", // R!  busy | free | busy-unavailable | busy-tentative
  "start" : "<instant>", // R!  Date/Time that the slot is to begin
  "end" : "<instant>", // R!  Date/Time that the slot is to conclude
  "overbooked" : <boolean>, // This slot has already been overbooked, appointments are unlikely to be accepted for this time
  "comment" : "<string>" // Comments on the slot to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot
}

Structure

Name	Flags	Card.	Type	Description & Constraints
Slot			DomainResource	A slot of time on a schedule that may be available for booking appointments
identifier	Σ	0..*	Identifier	External Ids for this item
type		0..1	CodeableConcept	The type of appointments that can be booked into this slot (ideally this would be an identifiable service - which is at a location, rather than the location itself). If provided then this overrides the value provided on the availability resource Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)
schedule	Σ	1..1	Reference(Schedule)	The schedule resource that this slot defines an interval of status information
freeBusyType	Σ	1..1	code	busy | free | busy-unavailable | busy-tentative SlotStatus (Required)
start	Σ	1..1	instant	Date/Time that the slot is to begin
end	Σ	1..1	instant	Date/Time that the slot is to conclude
overbooked		0..1	boolean	This slot has already been overbooked, appointments are unlikely to be accepted for this time
comment		0..1	string	Comments on the slot to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot
Documentation for this format

UML Diagram

XML Template

<Slot xmlns="http://hl7.org/fhir"> 
 <!-- from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language -->
 <!-- from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension -->
 <identifier><!-- 0..* Identifier External Ids for this item --></identifier>
 <type><!-- 0..1 CodeableConcept The type of appointments that can be booked into this slot (ideally this would be an identifiable service - which is at a location, rather than the location itself). If provided then this overrides the value provided on the availability resource --></type>
 <schedule><!-- 1..1 Reference(Schedule) The schedule resource that this slot defines an interval of status information --></schedule>
 <freeBusyType value="[code]"/><!-- 1..1 busy | free | busy-unavailable | busy-tentative -->
 <start value="[instant]"/><!-- 1..1 Date/Time that the slot is to begin -->
 <end value="[instant]"/><!-- 1..1 Date/Time that the slot is to conclude -->
 <overbooked value="[boolean]"/><!-- 0..1 This slot has already been overbooked, appointments are unlikely to be accepted for this time -->
 <comment value="[string]"/><!-- 0..1 Comments on the slot to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot -->
</Slot>

JSON Template

{
  "resourceType" : "Slot",
  // from Resource: id, meta, implicitRules, and language
  // from DomainResource: text, contained, extension, and modifierExtension
  "identifier" : [{ Identifier }], // External Ids for this item
  "type" : { CodeableConcept }, // The type of appointments that can be booked into this slot (ideally this would be an identifiable service - which is at a location, rather than the location itself). If provided then this overrides the value provided on the availability resource
  "schedule" : { Reference(Schedule) }, // R!  The schedule resource that this slot defines an interval of status information
  "freeBusyType" : "<code>", // R!  busy | free | busy-unavailable | busy-tentative
  "start" : "<instant>", // R!  Date/Time that the slot is to begin
  "end" : "<instant>", // R!  Date/Time that the slot is to conclude
  "overbooked" : <boolean>, // This slot has already been overbooked, appointments are unlikely to be accepted for this time
  "comment" : "<string>" // Comments on the slot to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slot
}