How to choose a single business ID for encounter?

[Kyrylo Antoshyn]

Hello, community members!

We have implemented SMART on FHIR integration with Cerner EHR. We are receiving encounter in the token response. It is the logical ID of the encounter. Now we are trying to get a single encounter's business ID via FHIR API. The idea is that we need to get an active encounter business ID for our system.

We have several questions:

1. Is it correct that encounter object can have multiple identifiers? If yes, in which scenario? The model has an array of identifiers: "identifier": [].
2. Encounter CSN type should be "FIN NBR", correct?
3. Is it correct that in order to get a single encounter CSN we should:
   1. Filter all encounters by type.text == "FIN NBR" (and by the system field too?).
   2. Choose encounter with no period.end sent or period.end set in the future.

See the image attached with an example of encounter identifier we are getting from the sandbox.

[Kyrylo Antoshyn]

Is it correct that encounter business ID = patient financial number?

[Aaron McGinn (Oracle Cerner)]

Let me know if I miss any of your questions here!

An Encounter can have multiple identifiers, as you noted. A hospital system could have multiple "identifier.system"s that have different meanings. This system value would be obtained from each client. When you receive an Encounter, you would parse through the identifiers to find the correct one based on that system. You should NOT be filtering by a text field.

The FIN is tied to the Encounter (vs the Patient).

Keep in mind that an Encounter may have a period.start in the future if that may affect your use-case.

-Aaron (Oracle Cerner)

[Kyrylo Antoshyn]

Hi, Aaron! Thank you for the response.

I have several questions based on your response:

1. What do you mean by " This system value would be obtained from each client."?
2. Can we have several encounter identifiers with equal system field? If yes, in what scenario and how to handle such situation?
3. Is it correct that in order to find a single encounter identifier I should filter them by the system field and take active one (without period.end set OR if current DateTime is > period.start and < period.end)?

[Kyrylo Antoshyn]

Hello, sorry for bothering you, do you have any updates on it?