Encounter

Definition

An encounter in Care is one episode of care between a patient and a facility. An outpatient visit, an admission, an emergency presentation, and a teleconsultation are each an encounter. Care groups the clinical records of that episode under the encounter.

One patient has many encounters over time. The patient record is the thread that joins them.

Key Attributes

Components	What it captures
Date and Time	The time the episode starts.
Type of Encounter	The kind of episode: Ambulatory, Emergency, Inpatient, Observation, Home Health, or Virtual.
Status	The stage the episode is at.
Priority	The urgency of the episode, for example Routine, Urgent, or Emergency.
Departments	The facility departments that the encounter belongs to. Care uses these departments to control access.
Tags	The labels that staff attach to the encounter.
Location	The location that the patient occupies in the facility, with the full location history.
Care Team	The users who care for the patient in this episode, each with a role.
Hospital Identifier	The identifier that the facility gives the episode, for example an inpatient number.
Hospitalization Details	The admission and discharge details of an inpatient, observation, or emergency episode.
Discharge Summary Advice	The advice that a clinician records for the patient at discharge.

Type of Encounter

Type	Description
Ambulatory	The patient visits for outpatient care.
Emergency	The patient needs immediate attention.
Inpatient	The facility admits the patient to a bed.
Observation	The facility keeps the patient under observation.
Home Health	Staff give care at the home of the patient.
Virtual	The clinician sees the patient in a teleconsultation.

Note: Your deployment configures which types of encounter Care shows, and which type Care selects first.

Hospitalization Details

Care shows these details only for an Inpatient, Observation, or Emergency encounter:

• Re-admission — the patient returns for the same problem.
• Admit Source — where the patient comes from, for example From outpatient department or Transferred from other hospital.
• Discharge Disposition — where the patient goes at discharge, for example Home or Other health care facility.
• Discharge Date and Time — the time the episode ends.
• Diet Preference — the diet the patient needs, for example Vegetarian or Halal.

Status

Status	Description
Planned	Staff expect the episode, but the episode has not started.
In Progress	A clinician sees or treats the patient now.
On Hold	Care pauses, for example to wait for a bed, and resumes later.
Discharged	The patient leaves the facility. Staff can still complete the paperwork.
Completed	The episode is finished.
Cancelled	Staff call the episode off before care starts.
Discontinued	Staff stop the episode, and the episode does not resume.
Entered in error	Staff create the encounter by mistake.
Unknown	The stage of the episode is not known.

Completed, Cancelled, Discontinued, and Entered in error are closed statuses. A closed encounter accepts no new clinical records. A user with a role that can update an encounter can restart a Completed encounter within the time limit that your deployment sets.

Care keeps a history of every status change and every type change.

Permissions

Care grants roles to a user through the facility departments that the user belongs to. Permissions cascade down the department tree. A role that a user holds at a parent department applies to the departments below it.

Permission	Description	System Roles
Can Create encounter	Start an encounter for a patient at a facility	Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Facility Admin
Can list encounters	List the encounters of a facility. This permission gives no access to clinical data.	Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Facility Admin
Can Read encounter	Open one encounter and read the details that are not clinical	Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Facility Admin
Can Read encounter related clinical data	Read the clinical records of the encounter	Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Facility Admin
Update Encounter non clinical	Update the encounter, manage its departments and identifiers, set the care team, and restart a closed encounter	Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Facility Admin
Update Encounter related clinical data	Update the clinical records of the encounter	Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Facility Admin
Can submit questionnaire about patient encounters	Submit a questionnaire against the encounter	Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Staff, Facility Admin

A user who can view the patient can also list and open the encounters of that patient.

Related

• Flow: Create an encounter
• Flow: Assign a location to an encounter
• Flow: Close an encounter
• Concept: Patient
• Concept: Condition
• Concept: Service request
• Concept: Notes
• Reference: Encounter