FHIR Chat · Practitioner authorities · implementers

Stream: implementers

Topic: Practitioner authorities

---

Richard Townley-O'Neill (Jun 13 2017 at 06:49):

I want to record the authority (entitlement) of a practitioner to do something, such as prescribe medications. For example an Australian Medicare provider number (a government-issued licence to provide medical services with a government subsidy).
In Practitioner both identifier and qualification look wrong.
I expect that an identifier is to uniquely identify the practitioner (though the definition includes the word role, which is strange as PractitionerRole is a different resource.) A Medicare provider number identifies the practitioner's licence, not the practitioner.
The name, description and examples for qualification seem to rule this out as well.

Surely there is a place for authorities (entitlements). Where is it?

Lloyd McKenzie (Jun 13 2017 at 14:48):

@Brian Postlethwaite (new)

Eric Haas (Jun 13 2017 at 16:41):

This sound like the assigning authority in v2 speak so why not the identifier.system? (EI-2-4 in V2)

Richard Townley-O'Neill (Jun 14 2017 at 02:12):

After some more thought, I think that driver's licence number is analogous to Medicare provider number.
Something like a driver's licence is used in two ways.

• When it is used to identify a person Identifier works fine: Identifier.system has uri for the identifier's name space and Identifier.value for the licence number.
• When it is used to indicate which types of vehicle a person is permitted to drive (e.g. a car, a light rigid truck and a motorcycle) Identifier does not work well, because all types of driver's licence will share the same name space. In this case qualification is best as qualification.code can be used to indicate what is authorised, a type of vehicle.
  So I think that authority to prescribe fits best into qualification.

Eric Haas (Jun 14 2017 at 04:09):

ah.... I was way off track...

Brian Postlethwaite (Jun 14 2017 at 23:47):

This is covered in the Australian FHIR profile, the Medicare Provider Number is specific to a location for the practitioner, so it goes in the PractitionerRole identifiers.
(Yes, this profile is still in development, but can be found here: http://build.fhir.org/ig/hl7au/au-fhir-base/StructureDefinition-au-practitionerrole.html) There is also a Provider Directory IG in-progress (http://build.fhir.org/ig/hl7au/au-fhir-pd)

Brian Postlethwaite (Jun 14 2017 at 23:49):

Qualifications are something that the practitioner has outside the organization/location (such as a degree or certification), but don't necessarily imply that this is what they are doing anywhere

Richard Townley-O'Neill (Jun 15 2017 at 01:37):

Thanks @Brian Postlethwaite, that is useful and informative.
How would you represent driver's licence class? As a qualification?

Brian Postlethwaite (Jun 20 2017 at 00:15):

I would have put it in an extension on the identifier. Brian has a Victorian License number xxxx with extensions for 'Bike', 'Heavy Articulated' and 'Car'

Lloyd McKenzie (Jun 20 2017 at 02:25):

I'm not sure whether I'd rather see a picture of you on a Harley or driving a semi... :)

David Hay (Jun 20 2017 at 03:02):

either is rather scary...

David Hay (Jun 20 2017 at 03:03):

...coming up behind you on the motorway...

Richard Townley-O'Neill (Jun 20 2017 at 04:30):

Ta

Brian Postlethwaite (Jul 04 2017 at 05:27):

(and I'm a little concerned you're picturing me @Lloyd McKenzie )

---

Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC