An occurrence of information being transmitted; e.g. an alert that was sent to a responsible provider, a public health agency was notified about a reportable condition.

Business identifiers assigned to this communication by the performer or other systems which remain constant as the resource is updated and propagates from server to server.

Allows identification of the communication as it is known by various participating systems and in a way that remains consistent across servers.

This is a business identifier, not a resource identifier (see discussion).  It is best practice for the identifier to only appear on a single resource instance, however business practices may occasionally dictate that multiple resource instances with the same identifier can exist - possibly even with different resource types.  For example, multiple Patient and a Person resource instance might share the same social insurance number.

A protocol, guideline, or other definition that was adhered to in whole or in part by this communication event.

An order, proposal or plan fulfilled in whole or in part by this Communication.

This must point to some sort of a 'Request' resource, such as CarePlan, CommunicationRequest, ServiceRequest, MedicationRequest, etc.

Part of this action.

Prior communication that this communication is in response to.

The status of the transmission.

This element is labeled as a modifier because the status contains the codes aborted and entered-in-error that mark the communication as not currently valid.

Captures the reason for the current state of the Communication.

This is generally only used for "exception" statuses such as "not-done", "suspended" or "aborted". The reason for performing the event at all is captured in reasonCode, not here.

The type of message conveyed such as alert, notification, reminder, instruction, etc.

There may be multiple axes of categorization and one communication may serve multiple purposes.

Characterizes how quickly the planned or in progress communication must be addressed. Includes concepts such as stat, urgent, routine.

Used to prioritize workflow (such as which communication to read first) when the communication is planned or in progress.

A channel that was used for this communication (e.g. email, fax).

The patient or group that was the focus of this communication.

The entity (e.g. person, organization, clinical information system, care team or device) which was the target of the communication. If receipts need to be tracked by individual, a separate resource instance will need to be created for each recipient.  Multiple recipient communications are intended where either a receipt(s) is not tracked (e.g. a mass mail-out) or is captured in aggregate (all emails confirmed received by a particular time).

Description of the purpose/content, similar to a subject line in an email.

Communication.topic.text can be used without any codings.

Other resources that pertain to this communication and to which this communication should be associated.

Don't use Communication.about element when a more specific element exists, such as basedOn or reasonReference.

The encounter within which the communication was sent.

The time when this communication was sent.

The time when this communication arrived at the destination.

The entity (e.g. person, organization, clinical information system, or device) which was the source of the communication.

The reason or justification for the communication.

Textual reasons can be captured using reasonCode.text.

Indicates another resource whose existence justifies this communication.

Text, attachment(s), or resource(s) that was communicated to the recipient.

A communicated content (or for multi-part communications, one portion of the communication).

Additional notes or commentary about the communication by the sender, receiver or other interested parties.