EpisodeOfCare

Overview

The EpisodeOfCare resource represents associations between patients and healthcare organizations or providers during which encounters may occur. The managing organization assumes responsibility for the patient during this time period.

Important: Always validate EpisodeOfCare resource support and available operations by retrieving the current CapabilityStatement from /metadata before implementing integrations.

Resource Schema

The EpisodeOfCare resource follows the HL7 FHIR R4 EpisodeOfCare specification.

Key elements include:

• identifier - Business identifiers for the episode
• status - Planned, waitlist, active, onhold, finished, cancelled, entered-in-error
• statusHistory - Past list of status codes
• type - Type/class of the episode
• diagnosis - Conditions/problems/diagnoses this episode manages
• patient - Patient for this episode of care
• managingOrganization - Organization that assumes care
• period - Interval during responsibility is assumed
• referralRequest - Originating referral request(s)
• careManager - Care manager/care coordinator
• team - Other practitioners facilitating episode
• account - Accounts associated with episode

Example EpisodeOfCare Resource

{
  "resourceType": "EpisodeOfCare",
  "id": "12345",
  "identifier": [{
    "use": "official",
    "system": "http://hospital.example.org/episodes",
    "value": "EP-2024-001"
  }],
  "status": "active",
  "type": [{
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/episodeofcare-type",
      "code": "hacc",
      "display": "Home and Community Care"
    }]
  }],
  "diagnosis": [{
    "condition": {
      "reference": "Condition/diabetes-12345"
    },
    "role": {
      "coding": [{
        "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/diagnosis-role",
        "code": "CC",
        "display": "Chief complaint"
      }]
    },
    "rank": 1
  }],
  "patient": {
    "reference": "Patient/12345"
  },
  "managingOrganization": {
    "reference": "Organization/hospital-123"
  },
  "period": {
    "start": "2024-01-15T08:00:00Z",
    "end": "2024-07-15T17:00:00Z"
  },
  "careManager": {
    "reference": "Practitioner/care-manager-456",
    "display": "Jane Care Manager"
  },
  "team": [{
    "reference": "CareTeam/diabetes-team-789"
  }]
}

Supported Profiles

This API supports the following FHIR profiles:

• HL7 FHIR R4 EpisodeOfCare

Operations

The General Purpose FHIR R4 Patient resource supports the following standard operations. However, support varies by the targeted CareRecord or solution.

CareRecord / Solution	Create	Read	Update	Search
GEHRIMED	-	Yes	-	Yes
myAvatar	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
myEvolv	-	Yes	-	Yes
myUnity	-	Yes	-	Yes
Referral Manager	-	-	-	-

Search

info

Not all Netsmart solutions support EpisodeOfCare search. See supported operations table above and consult your target solution's documentation for more information.

This resource supports a combination of standard and custom search parameters in addition to the common parameters.

Standard Parameters

Name	Type	Description
patient	reference	The patient who is the focus of this episode of care.

Custom Parameters

Name	Type	Description
end	date	Deprecated. Use date parameter with le prefix instead.
start	date	Deprecated. Use date parameter with ge prefix instead.

Search Examples

The POST method is recommended as it keeps health information out of the URL.

Production

Search Behavioral Health Episodes by Patient

curl -X POST https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/v4/EpisodeOfCare/_search \
    -H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-form-urlencoded" \
    -d "patient=Patient/345" \
    

Preview

Search Behavioral Health Episodes by Patient

curl -X POST https://fhirtest.netsmartcloud.com/v4/EpisodeOfCare/_search \
    -H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-form-urlencoded" \
    -d "patient=Patient/345" \
    

Error Handling

For information about error responses when working with EpisodeOfCare resources, see Common Errors.

Common EpisodeOfCare-related errors include:

• Missing required patient reference
• Invalid episode status codes
• Malformed period dates
• Invalid organization or care manager references

Integration Patterns

Care Coordination

Track patient episodes across organizations:

# Get active episodes for patient
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/v4/EpisodeOfCare?patient=12345&status=active" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Longitudinal Care

Manage long-term care relationships:

# Get all episodes for patient
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/v4/EpisodeOfCare?patient=12345" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Care Transitions

Track episode status changes:

# Get episodes by date range
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/v4/EpisodeOfCare?patient=12345&date=ge2024-01-01" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Relationships to Other Resources

The EpisodeOfCare resource serves as a container for related clinical activities:

• Patient - The individual receiving care during the episode
• Organization - Healthcare organizations managing episodes
• Practitioner - Care managers and team members
• Encounter - Clinical encounters occurring during episodes
• Condition - Diagnoses and conditions managed during episodes
• CarePlan - Care plans developed during episodes
• Goal - Treatment goals for episodes

Support

For questions about EpisodeOfCare resource implementation or care coordination workflows, contact Netsmart support through your designated support channels.