Stream: implementers
Topic: Using free text in CodeableConcept
Tim Berezny (Mar 10 2018 at 20:12):
When referring to community services, a "Reason for Referral" field is usually open style narrative/free text. e.g., "pt is experiencing social distress, is at a risk for falls and has been advised by a friend that this is a useful service"
Can i use ServiceRequest.reasonCode.text to hold this free text, or should I only be using reasonCode if i am applying some kind of code system to the reason?
Lloyd McKenzie (Mar 10 2018 at 21:27):
It's totally fine to use CodeableConcept.text if all you have is free text.
Tim Berezny (Mar 10 2018 at 23:40):
That is music the my ears ...
Paul Knapp (Mar 13 2018 at 05:47):
Unless it is specifically disallowed. In situations where coded data is expected then often you aren't permitted to make up a code which doesn't already exist in the codeset nor are you generally permitted to send text in place of a code. It depends on the use case, profile, IG and/or community of use. It depends more on what the users of the resource are expecting - if a machine is receiving and triaging based on an expected code then it likely isn't readying your text, but if the information is being presented to a human with a code, if supplied, and the text if not or to augment the code then using the text would work for your intended purpose.
Lloyd McKenzie (Mar 13 2018 at 11:18):
That's true of any element. FHIR doesn't require Patient.name, but lots of implementations to. From a FHIR compliance perspective, CodeableConcept with no codings is fine. Some implementations may demand codings. Some may throw them away.
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
