The FHIR R4 Encounter resource is used to capture details about an interaction between a patient and a healthcare provider. It represents the entire span of care provided, including hospital visits, outpatient consultations, or any other health-related interaction. This resource records information such as the encounter type, status, participants, and diagnoses.
Use Cases
- Track patient admissions and discharges
- Log patient encounters during hospital visits or outpatient visits
- Retrieve encounter details for billing and reimbursement
- Link diagnostic reports or procedures to encounters
Base URLs
- Production: https://api.healthgorilla.com/fhir/R4/Encounter
- Sandbox: https://sandbox.healthgorilla.com/fhir/R4/Encounter
Authentication
All requests require OAuth 2.0 authentication using a Bearer Token. Unauthorized requests return 401 Unauthorized responses.
Required scopes:
encounter.readfor GETencounter.writefor POST, PUT, DELETE
For more information, go to: OAuth 2.0 Authentication.
Supported Methods
| Method | Operation | Description |
|---|---|---|
GET | Read Encounter | Retrieves a specific Encounter record by its FHIR ID. |
GET | Search Encounter | Searches for Encounter records for a specified patient. |
POST | Create Encounter | Submits a new Encounter record to the Health Gorilla FHIR server. |
PUT | Update Encounter | Updates an existing Encounter record by full resource replacement. |
DELETE | Delete Encounter | Removes an existing Encounter record from the system by full resource deletion. |
Frequently Used Search Parameters
| Parameter | Description | FHIR Value Set / Example Values | FHIR Data Type | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
patient | Filters by patient ID | Patient/{id} | Reference | Yes |
status | Filters by the current status of the encounter | EncounterStatus (in-progress) | token | No |
type | Filters by the type of encounter | EncounterType (outpatient) | token | No |
period | Filters by the time period of the encounter | ge2024-01-01, le2024-12-31 | date | No |
serviceProvider | Filters by the healthcare provider responsible for the care | Organization/{id} | Reference | No |
diagnosis | Filters by a diagnosis related to the encounter | Condition/{id} | Reference | No |
Commonly Returned Resource Attributes
| Attribute | Description | Example Values | FHIR Data Type | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
status | The status of the encounter | in-progress | CodeableConcept | Yes |
class | The class of the encounter (e.g., inpatient, outpatient) | outpatient, emergency, inpatient | CodeableConcept | No |
type | The type of the encounter | EncounterType (office) | CodeableConcept | No |
period | The duration of the encounter | 2024-02-12T12:34:56Z/2024-02-12T15:34:56Z | Period | Yes |
serviceProvider | The healthcare provider responsible for the encounter | Organization/{id} | Reference(Organization) | No |
diagnosis | Diagnoses associated with the encounter | Condition/{id} | Reference | No |
participant | Participants involved in the encounter | Practitioner/{id}, RelatedPerson/{id} | Reference | No |
Webhooks
Clients can subscribe to receive notifications when an encounter is created, updated, or closed. For more information, go to: Webhooks & Polling.
Error Handling
All Encounter operations follow standard Health Gorilla error handling, including use of FHIR OperationOutcome for structured responses. For more information, go to: Error Handling.