Release 5

This page is part of the FHIR Specification (v5.0.0: R5 - STU). This is the current published version. For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions . Page versions: R5 R4B R4 R3 R2

12.16 Resource Schedule - Content

Patient Administration icon Work GroupMaturity Level: 3 Trial UseSecurity Category: Business Compartments: Device, Patient, Practitioner, RelatedPerson

A container for slots of time that may be available for booking appointments.

Schedule resources provide a container for time-slots that can be booked using an appointment. It provides the window of time (period) that slots are defined for and what type of appointments can be booked.
The schedule does not provide any information about actual appointments. This separation greatly assists where access to the appointments would not be permitted for security or privacy reasons, while still being able to determine if an appointment might be available.

Note: A schedule is not used for the delivery of medication, the Timing data type should be used for that purpose.

A schedule controls the dates and times available for the performance of a service and/or the use of a resource. One schedule applies to one service or resource, since each service or resource can be reserved independently of the others.
If two or more services, people, locations, or things cannot be reserved independently of one another, they are considered to be one activity or resource.

A schedule consists of slots of time during which the controlled service or resource is potentially available for provision or use. Slots are categorized as open, booked, or blocked. An open slot on a schedule indicates that the service or resource is available for provision or use during that period of time. A booked slot indicates that the service or resource is not available during the time period, because an appointment has been scheduled. A blocked slot indicates that a service or resource is unavailable for reasons other than a scheduled appointment.

The real-world, non-automated analogue of the schedule described above is a standard appointment book. These books are generally organized with rows of time slots, during which a service or resource is available.

A slot is one unit on a schedule. A slot represents the smallest unit of time or quantity that a service or resource may be booked. Depending on the nature of the service or resource, there may be more than one defined slot at a given instant of time. For example, if a service is an open group therapy session with twelve available seats, then there are twelve slots for the given block of time.

The schedule belongs to a single instance of a service or resource. This is normally a HealthcareService, Practitioner, Location or Device. In the case where a single resource can provide different services, potentially at different location, then the schedulable resource is considered the composite of the actors.
For example, if a practitioner can provide services at multiple locations, they might have one schedule per location, where each schedule includes both the practitioner and location actors. When booking an appointment with multiple schedulable resources, multiple schedules may need to be checked depending on the configuration of the system.

If an appointment has two practitioners, a specific medical device and a room then there could be a schedule for each of these resources that may need to be consulted to ensure that no collisions occur.
If the schedule needed to be consulted, then there would be one created covering the planning horizon for the time of the appointment.

When checking availability for an appointment, the creator of the appointment should determine which schedules are applicable, then check for available slots within each schedule.

Determining which schedules should be consulted often will involve searching via the properties of the referenced actors, such as the ServiceCategory on the HealthcareService, or the Address on a Location.

The type parameter can be used to filter the type of services that can be booked within the associated slots.

If all slots are busy, the caller may attempt to book an appointment into an already-booked slot, but the server business rules will dictate whether overbooking is allowed, or whether the appointment may be given a higher precedence and allocated the overbooked slot.

Structure

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraintsdoco
.. Schedule TUDomainResourceA container for slots of time that may be available for booking appointments

Elements defined in Ancestors: id, meta, implicitRules, language, text, contained, extension, modifierExtension
... identifier Σ0..*IdentifierExternal Ids for this item

... active ?!Σ0..1booleanWhether this schedule is in active use
... serviceCategory Σ0..*CodeableConceptHigh-level category
Binding: Service Category (Example)

... specialty Σ0..*CodeableConceptType of specialty needed
Binding: Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)

... name Σ0..1stringHuman-readable label
... actor Σ1..*Reference(Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | CareTeam | RelatedPerson | Device | HealthcareService | Location)Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for

... planningHorizon Σ0..1PeriodPeriod of time covered by schedule
... comment 0..1markdownComments on availability

doco Documentation for this format icon

See the Extensions for this resource

UML Diagram (Legend)

Schedule (DomainResource)External Ids for this itemidentifier : Identifier [0..*]Whether this schedule record is in active use or should not be used (such as was entered in error) (this element modifies the meaning of other elements)active : boolean [0..1]A broad categorization of the service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceCategory : CodeableConcept [0..*] « null (Strength=Example)ServiceCategory?? »The specific service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceType : CodeableReference [0..*] « HealthcareService; null (Strength=Example) ServiceType?? »The specialty of a practitioner that would be required to perform the service requested in this appointmentspecialty : CodeableConcept [0..*] « null (Strength=Preferred)PracticeSettingCodeValueSet? »Further description of the schedule as it would be presented to a consumer while searchingname : string [0..1]Slots that reference this schedule resource provide the availability details to these referenced resource(s)actor : Reference [1..*] « Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole| CareTeam|RelatedPerson|Device|HealthcareService|Location »The period of time that the slots that reference this Schedule resource cover (even if none exist). These cover the amount of time that an organization's planning horizon; the interval for which they are currently accepting appointments. This does not define a "template" for planning outside these datesplanningHorizon : Period [0..1]Comments on the availability to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slots that may be associatedcomment : markdown [0..1]

Turtle Template

@prefix fhir: <http://hl7.org/fhir/> .doco


[ a fhir:Schedule;
  fhir:nodeRole fhir:treeRoot; # if this is the parser root

  # from Resource: .id, .meta, .implicitRules, and .language
  # from DomainResource: .text, .contained, .extension, and .modifierExtension
  fhir:identifier  ( [ Identifier ] ... ) ; # 0..* External Ids for this item
  fhir:active [ boolean ] ; # 0..1 Whether this schedule is in active use
  fhir:serviceCategory  ( [ CodeableConcept ] ... ) ; # 0..* High-level category
  fhir:serviceType  ( [ CodeableReference(HealthcareService) ] ... ) ; # 0..* Specific service
  fhir:specialty  ( [ CodeableConcept ] ... ) ; # 0..* Type of specialty needed
  fhir:name [ string ] ; # 0..1 Human-readable label
  fhir:actor  ( [ Reference(CareTeam|Device|HealthcareService|Location|Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole|
  RelatedPerson) ] ... ) ; # 1..* Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for
  fhir:planningHorizon [ Period ] ; # 0..1 Period of time covered by schedule
  fhir:comment [ markdown ] ; # 0..1 Comments on availability
]

Changes from both R4 and R4B

Schedule
Schedule.serviceType
  • Type changed from CodeableConcept to CodeableReference
Schedule.name
  • Added Element
Schedule.actor
  • Type Reference: Added Target Type CareTeam
Schedule.comment
  • Type changed from string to markdown

See the Full Difference for further information

This analysis is available for R4 as XML or JSON and for R4B as XML or JSON.

See R4 <--> R5 Conversion Maps (status = See Conversions Summary.)

Structure

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraintsdoco
.. Schedule TUDomainResourceA container for slots of time that may be available for booking appointments

Elements defined in Ancestors: id, meta, implicitRules, language, text, contained, extension, modifierExtension
... identifier Σ0..*IdentifierExternal Ids for this item

... active ?!Σ0..1booleanWhether this schedule is in active use
... serviceCategory Σ0..*CodeableConceptHigh-level category
Binding: Service Category (Example)

... specialty Σ0..*CodeableConceptType of specialty needed
Binding: Practice Setting Code Value Set (Preferred)

... name Σ0..1stringHuman-readable label
... actor Σ1..*Reference(Patient | Practitioner | PractitionerRole | CareTeam | RelatedPerson | Device | HealthcareService | Location)Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for

... planningHorizon Σ0..1PeriodPeriod of time covered by schedule
... comment 0..1markdownComments on availability

doco Documentation for this format icon

See the Extensions for this resource

UML Diagram (Legend)

Schedule (DomainResource)External Ids for this itemidentifier : Identifier [0..*]Whether this schedule record is in active use or should not be used (such as was entered in error) (this element modifies the meaning of other elements)active : boolean [0..1]A broad categorization of the service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceCategory : CodeableConcept [0..*] « null (Strength=Example)ServiceCategory?? »The specific service that is to be performed during this appointmentserviceType : CodeableReference [0..*] « HealthcareService; null (Strength=Example) ServiceType?? »The specialty of a practitioner that would be required to perform the service requested in this appointmentspecialty : CodeableConcept [0..*] « null (Strength=Preferred)PracticeSettingCodeValueSet? »Further description of the schedule as it would be presented to a consumer while searchingname : string [0..1]Slots that reference this schedule resource provide the availability details to these referenced resource(s)actor : Reference [1..*] « Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole| CareTeam|RelatedPerson|Device|HealthcareService|Location »The period of time that the slots that reference this Schedule resource cover (even if none exist). These cover the amount of time that an organization's planning horizon; the interval for which they are currently accepting appointments. This does not define a "template" for planning outside these datesplanningHorizon : Period [0..1]Comments on the availability to describe any extended information. Such as custom constraints on the slots that may be associatedcomment : markdown [0..1]

Turtle Template

@prefix fhir: <http://hl7.org/fhir/> .doco


[ a fhir:Schedule;
  fhir:nodeRole fhir:treeRoot; # if this is the parser root

  # from Resource: .id, .meta, .implicitRules, and .language
  # from DomainResource: .text, .contained, .extension, and .modifierExtension
  fhir:identifier  ( [ Identifier ] ... ) ; # 0..* External Ids for this item
  fhir:active [ boolean ] ; # 0..1 Whether this schedule is in active use
  fhir:serviceCategory  ( [ CodeableConcept ] ... ) ; # 0..* High-level category
  fhir:serviceType  ( [ CodeableReference(HealthcareService) ] ... ) ; # 0..* Specific service
  fhir:specialty  ( [ CodeableConcept ] ... ) ; # 0..* Type of specialty needed
  fhir:name [ string ] ; # 0..1 Human-readable label
  fhir:actor  ( [ Reference(CareTeam|Device|HealthcareService|Location|Patient|Practitioner|PractitionerRole|
  RelatedPerson) ] ... ) ; # 1..* Resource(s) that availability information is being provided for
  fhir:planningHorizon [ Period ] ; # 0..1 Period of time covered by schedule
  fhir:comment [ markdown ] ; # 0..1 Comments on availability
]

Changes from both R4 and R4B

Schedule
Schedule.serviceType
  • Type changed from CodeableConcept to CodeableReference
Schedule.name
  • Added Element
Schedule.actor
  • Type Reference: Added Target Type CareTeam
Schedule.comment
  • Type changed from string to markdown

See the Full Difference for further information

This analysis is available for R4 as XML or JSON and for R4B as XML or JSON.

See R4 <--> R5 Conversion Maps (status = See Conversions Summary.)

 

Additional definitions: Master Definition XML + JSON, XML Schema/Schematron + JSON Schema, ShEx (for Turtle) + see the extensions, the spreadsheet version & the dependency analysis

PathValueSetTypeDocumentation
Schedule.serviceCategory ServiceCategory Example

This value set defines an example set of codes that can be used to classify groupings of service-types/specialties.

Schedule.serviceType ServiceType Example

This value set defines an example set of codes of service-types.

Schedule.specialty PracticeSettingCodeValueSet Preferred

This is the code representing the clinical specialty of the clinician or provider who interacted with, treated, or provided a service to/for the patient. The value set used for clinical specialty has been limited by HITSP to the value set reproduced from HITSP C80 Table 2-149 Clinical Specialty Value Set Definition.

There is a strong desire that implementers of this resource should consider providing the resource in the iCalendar format as an alternative representation. Many 3rd party applications and component providers have parsers and user interface controls to display this information. This may lower the entry point to integrate outside the health-care specific applications, and into the consumer space. This would permit the easier creation of a mobile application that creates appointments in the devices native calendar.
The iCalendar specification can be found at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2445.txt icon.

Due to the dynamic nature of slots they are not included as a part of this resource.

It is anticipated that this resource is likely to be updated intermittently when the scope of slots is changed, i.e. to change the period of slots in the planning horizon. This could be performed each night to move the start and end date forward to keep the planning horizon as exactly 4 weeks.

The slot resource however is anticipated to be updated very regularly as the appointments that reference them are created/updated/cancelled.

Search parameters for this resource. See also the full list of search parameters for this resource, and check the Extensions registry for search parameters on extensions related to this resource. The common parameters also apply. See Searching for more information about searching in REST, messaging, and services.

NameTypeDescriptionExpressionIn Common
activetokenIs the schedule in active useSchedule.active
actorreferenceThe individual(HealthcareService, Practitioner, Location, ...) to find a Schedule forSchedule.actor
(Practitioner, CareTeam, Device, Patient, HealthcareService, PractitionerRole, RelatedPerson, Location)
datedateSearch for Schedule resources that have a period that contains this date specifiedSchedule.planningHorizon
identifiertokenA Schedule IdentifierSchedule.identifier
namestringA portion of the Schedule nameSchedule.name
service-categorytokenHigh-level categorySchedule.serviceCategory
service-typetokenThe type (by coding) of appointments that can be booked into associated slot(s)Schedule.serviceType.concept
service-type-referencereferenceThe type (by HealthcareService) of appointments that can be booked into associated slot(s)Schedule.serviceType.reference
specialtytokenType of specialty neededSchedule.specialty