A formally or informally recognized grouping of people or organizations formed for the purpose of achieving some form of collective action. Includes companies, institutions, corporations, departments, community groups, healthcare practice groups, etc.

The logical id of the resource, as used in the URL for the resource. Once assigned, this value never changes.

The only time that a resource does not have an id is when it is being submitted to the server using a create operation.

The metadata about the resource. This is content that is maintained by the infrastructure. Changes to the content may not always be associated with version changes to the resource.

A reference to a set of rules that were followed when the resource was constructed, and which must be understood when processing the content.

Asserting this rule set restricts the content to be only understood by a limited set of trading partners. This inherently limits the usefulness of the data in the long term. However, the existing health eco-system is highly fractured, and not yet ready to define, collect, and exchange data in a generally computable sense. Wherever possible, implementers and/or specification writers should avoid using this element.

This element is labelled as a modifier because the implicit rules may provide additional knowledge about the resource that modifies it's meaning or interpretation.

The base language in which the resource is written.

Language is provided to support indexing and accessibility (typically, services such as text to speech use the language tag). The html language tag in the narrative applies to the narrative. The language tag on the resource may be used to specify the language of other presentations generated from the data in the resource Not all the content has to be in the base language. The Resource.language should not be assumed to apply to the narrative automatically. If a language is specified, it should it also be specified on the div element in the html (see rules in HTML5 for information about the relationship between xml:lang and the html lang attribute).

A human-readable narrative that contains a summary of the resource, and may be used to represent the content of the resource to a human. The narrative need not encode all the structured data, but is required to contain sufficient detail to make it "clinically safe" for a human to just read the narrative. Resource definitions may define what content should be represented in the narrative to ensure clinical safety.

Contained resources do not have narrative. Resources that are not contained SHOULD have a narrative. In some cases, a resource may only have text with little or no additional discrete data (as long as all minOccurs=1 elements are satisfied). This may be necessary for data from legacy systems where information is captured as a "text blob" or where text is additionally entered raw or narrated and encoded in formation is added later.

These resources do not have an independent existence apart from the resource that contains them - they cannot be identified independently, and nor can they have their own independent transaction scope.

This should never be done when the content can be identified properly, as once identification is lost, it is extremely difficult (and context dependent) to restore it again.

An Extension

Relations to other Organizations

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Identifier for the organization that is used to identify the organization across multiple disparate systems.

Organizations are known by a variety of ids. Some institutions maintain several, and most collect identifiers for exchange with other organizations concerning the organization.

Whether the organization's record is still in active use.

Need a flag to indicate a record is no longer to be used and should generally be hidden for the user in the UI.

Default is true.

This active flag is not intended to be used to mark an organizations as temporarily closed or under construction. Instead the Location(s) within the Organization should have the suspended status. If further details of the reason for the suspension are required, then an extension on this element should be used.

This element is labeled as a modifier because it may be used to mark that the resource was created in error.

The kind(s) of organization that this is.

Need to be able to track the kind of organization that this is - different organization types have different uses.

Organizations can be corporations, wards, sections, clinical teams, government departments, etc. Note that code is generally a classifier of the type of organization; in many applications, codes are used to identity a particular organization (say, ward) as opposed to another of the same type - these are identifiers, not codes

When considering if multiple types are appropriate, you should evaluate if child organizations would be a more appropriate use of the concept, as different types likely are in different sub-areas of the organization. This is most likely to be used where type values have orthogonal values, such as a religious, academic and medical center.

We expect that some jurisdictions will profile this optionality to be a single cardinality.

A name associated with the organization.

Need to use the name as the label of the organization.

If the name of an organization changes, consider putting the old name in the alias column so that it can still be located through searches.

A list of alternate names that the organization is known as, or was known as in the past.

Over time locations and organizations go through many changes and can be known by different names.

For searching knowing previous names that the organization was known by can be very useful.

There are no dates associated with the alias/historic names, as this is not intended to track when names were used, but to assist in searching so that older names can still result in identifying the organization.

A contact detail for the organization.

Human contact for the organization.

The use code home is not to be used. Note that these contacts are not the contact details of people who are employed by or represent the organization, but official contacts for the organization itself.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Telecommunications form for contact point - what communications system is required to make use of the contact.

The actual contact point details, in a form that is meaningful to the designated communication system (i.e. phone number or email address).

Need to support legacy numbers that are not in a tightly controlled format.

Additional text data such as phone extension numbers, or notes about use of the contact are sometimes included in the value.

Identifies the purpose for the contact point.

Need to track the way a person uses this contact, so a user can choose which is appropriate for their purpose.

This is labeled as "Is Modifier" because applications should not mistake a temporary or old contact etc.for a current/permanent one. Applications can assume that a contact is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.

Specifies a preferred order in which to use a set of contacts. Contacts are ranked with lower values coming before higher values.

Note that rank does not necessarily follow the order in which the contacts are represented in the instance.

Time period when the contact point was/is in use.

An address for the organization.

May need to keep track of the organization's addresses for contacting, billing or reporting requirements.

Organization may have multiple addresses with different uses or applicable periods. The use code home is not to be used.

The organization of which this organization forms a part.

Need to be able to track the hierarchy of organizations within an organization.

Contact for the organization for a certain purpose.

Need to keep track of assigned contact points within bigger organization.

Where multiple contacts for the same purpose are provided there is a standard extension that can be used to determine which one is the preferred contact to use.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element, and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Indicates a purpose for which the contact can be reached.

Need to distinguish between multiple contact persons.

A name associated with the contact.

Need to be able to track the person by name.

A contact detail (e.g. a telephone number or an email address) by which the party may be contacted.

People have (primary) ways to contact them in some way such as phone, email.

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.

An Extension

An Extension

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Source of the definition for the extension code - a logical name or a URL.

The definition may point directly to a computable or human-readable definition of the extensibility codes, or it may be a logical URI as declared in some other specification. The definition SHALL be a URI for the Structure Definition defining the extension.

Value of extension - may be a resource or one of a constrained set of the data types (see Extensibility in the spec for list).

An Extension

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Source of the definition for the extension code - a logical name or a URL.

The definition may point directly to a computable or human-readable definition of the extensibility codes, or it may be a logical URI as declared in some other specification. The definition SHALL be a URI for the Structure Definition defining the extension.

Value of extension - may be a resource or one of a constrained set of the data types (see Extensibility in the spec for list).

An Extension

unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.

May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. In order to make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.

There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Source of the definition for the extension code - a logical name or a URL.

The definition may point directly to a computable or human-readable definition of the extensibility codes, or it may be a logical URI as declared in some other specification. The definition SHALL be a URI for the Structure Definition defining the extension.

Value of extension - may be a resource or one of a constrained set of the data types (see Extensibility in the spec for list).

Telecommunications form for contact point - what communications system is required to make use of the contact.

The actual contact point details, in a form that is meaningful to the designated communication system (i.e. phone number or email address).

Need to support legacy numbers that are not in a tightly controlled format.

Additional text data such as phone extension numbers, or notes about use of the contact are sometimes included in the value.

Identifies the purpose for the contact point.

Need to track the way a person uses this contact, so a user can choose which is appropriate for their purpose.

This is labeled as "Is Modifier" because applications should not mistake a temporary or old contact etc.for a current/permanent one. Applications can assume that a contact is current unless it explicitly says that it is temporary or old.

Specifies a preferred order in which to use a set of contacts. Contacts are ranked with lower values coming before higher values.

Note that rank does not necessarily follow the order in which the contacts are represented in the instance.

Time period when the contact point was/is in use.

Visiting or postal addresses for the contact.

May need to keep track of a contact party's address for contacting, billing or reporting requirements.

Technical endpoints providing access to services operated for the organization.

Organizations have multiple systems that provide various services and need to be able to define the technical connection details for how to connect to them, and for what purpose.