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RelatedPerson

Overview​

The RelatedPerson resource represents individuals involved in patient care who are not healthcare providers or the target of care themselves. This includes family members, caregivers, emergency contacts, and other support persons.

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

Resource Schema​

The RelatedPerson resource follows the HL7 FHIR R4 RelatedPerson specification.

Key elements include:

  • identifier - Identifiers for the related person
  • active - Whether this related person's record is in active use
  • patient - The patient this person is related to
  • relationship - The nature of the relationship
  • name - Name(s) associated with the related person
  • telecom - Contact details for the related person
  • gender - Administrative gender
  • birthDate - Date of birth
  • address - Address(es) for the related person
  • photo - Image of the related person
  • period - Period of time that this relationship is considered valid
  • communication - Languages spoken by related person

Example RelatedPerson Resource​

{
  "resourceType": "RelatedPerson",
  "id": "12345",
  "identifier": [{
    "use": "usual",
    "system": "http://hospital.example.org/related-persons",
    "value": "RP-2024-001"
  }],
  "active": true,
  "patient": {
    "reference": "Patient/12345"
  },
  "relationship": [{
    "coding": [{
      "system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v3-RoleCode",
      "code": "WIFE",
      "display": "Wife"
    }]
  }],
  "name": [{
    "use": "official",
    "family": "Smith",
    "given": ["Jane", "Marie"]
  }],
  "telecom": [{
    "system": "phone",
    "value": "+1-555-123-4567",
    "use": "home"
  }, {
    "system": "email",
    "value": "jane.smith@example.com",
    "use": "home"
  }],
  "gender": "female",
  "birthDate": "1985-03-20",
  "address": [{
    "use": "home",
    "line": ["123 Family Lane"],
    "city": "Hometown",
    "state": "CA",
    "postalCode": "12345",
    "country": "US"
  }],
  "period": {
    "start": "2010-06-15"
  }
}

Supported Profiles​

This API supports the following FHIR profiles:

Operations​

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

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

This operation retrieves a list of resources by these query parameters.

Standard Parameters​

NameTypeDescription
birthdatedateThe Related Person's date of birth
patientreferenceREQUIRED The patient this related person is related to

Search Examples​

Via POST​

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

Search by Patient
curl -X POST https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/v4/RelatedPerson/_search \
    -H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-form-urlencoded" \
    -d "patient=Patient/123"
Via GET​
Search by Patient
curl -X GET https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/v4/RelatedPerson?patient=Patient/123 \
    -H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Error Handling​

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

Common RelatedPerson-related errors include:

  • Missing required patient reference
  • Invalid relationship codes
  • Malformed contact information
  • Invalid birth dates or period dates

Integration Patterns​

Emergency Contacts​

Retrieve patient emergency contacts:

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

Care Coordination​

Identify family caregivers:

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

Contact Management​

Find related persons by birth date:

# Search by birth date
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/v4/RelatedPerson?patient=12345&birthdate=1985-03-20" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Relationships to Other Resources​

The RelatedPerson resource connects to patient care and administrative resources:

  • Patient - The individual to whom the person is related
  • Practitioner - Healthcare providers who may interact with related persons
  • Organization - Healthcare organizations managing related person information
  • Encounter - Clinical encounters involving related persons
  • Coverage - Insurance coverage where related persons may be subscribers

Support​

For questions about RelatedPerson resource implementation or family/caregiver workflows, contact Netsmart support through your designated support channels.