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Patient

Overview​

The Patient resource provides demographics and administrative information about an individual receiving care or health-related services. This resource is central to most healthcare workflows and serves as the primary identifier for linking clinical data.

Resource Schema​

Key fields in the Patient resource:

{
  "resourceType": "Patient",
  "id": "example-patient-123",
  "identifier": [
    {
      "system": "http://hl7.org/fhir/sid/us-ssn",
      "value": "123456789"
    }
  ],
  "name": [
    {
      "family": "Doe",
      "given": ["John"]
    }
  ],
  "gender": "male",
  "birthDate": "1990-01-01"
}

Operations​

The Patient resource supports Read and Search operations. Support varies by CareRecord solution.

CareRecord / SolutionReadSearch
GEHRIMED✅✅
myAvatar✅✅
myEvolv✅✅
myUnity✅✅
TheraOffice✅✅

Read​

Retrieves a specific Patient resource by ID.

HTTP Method: GET
URL: /Patient/{id}

Examples​

curl -X GET https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/uscore/v1/Patient/123456 \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Retrieves Patient resources matching specified criteria.

HTTP Method: GET or POST
URL: /Patient or /Patient/_search

Search Parameters​

Search Parameters:

ParameterTypeRequiredDescriptionExample
birthdatedateNoThe patient's date of birthbirthdate=value
death-datedateNoThe date of death has been provided and satisfies this search valuedeath-date=value
familystringNoA portion the family name of the patientfamily=value
gendertokenNoGender of the patientgender=value
givenstringNoA portion of the given name of the patientgiven=value
identifiertokenNoAn identifier for this patientidentifier=value
namestringNoA name associated with the patientname=value
pagestringNoZero-based page indexpage=value
_revincludespecialNoInclude Provenance resource(s) that reference the matched search results. Allowed: "Provenance:target"_revinclude=value
_ididNoUnique identifier of the Patient._id=value

Examples​

POST Method (Recommended)​

The POST method keeps sensitive information out of URL logs.

Search by Date of Birth
curl -X POST https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/uscore/v1/Patient/_search \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-form-urlencoded" \ 
    -d "birthdate=ge1996-03-28" \
    -d "birthdate=le1996-03-30"
Search by US Social Security Number
curl -X POST https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/uscore/v1/Patient/_search \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/x-form-urlencoded" \ 
    -d "identifier=http://hl7.org/fhir/sid/us-ssn|123456789"
GET Method​
Search by Birth Date
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/uscore/v1/Patient?birthdate=ge1996-03-28&birthdate=le1996-03-30" \ 
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"
Search by US Social Security Number
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/uscore/v1/Patient?identifier=http://hl7.org/fhir/sid/us-ssn|123456789" \ 
    -H "Authorization: Bearer {token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Integration Patterns​

Common Workflows​

  1. Patient Lookup - Search by identifier or demographic information
  2. Patient Demographics - Retrieve complete patient information
  3. Related Data Access - Use patient ID to search for clinical resources

Relationships to Other Resources​

The Patient resource is referenced by most clinical resources:

Error Handling​

For common errors and troubleshooting guidance, see Common Errors.

Supported Profiles​

Profiles supported by this resource (as defined in the CapabilityStatement):