Encounter

Schema documentation for the Encounter table in the Metriport data model

An encounter encompasses the lifecycle from pre-admission, the actual encounter (for ambulatory encounters), and admission, stay and discharge (for inpatient encounters). During the encounter the patient may move from practitioner to practitioner and location to location.

Reference Table:

The encounter_references table contains normalized references from the encounter to other entities. It supports the following reference properties:

• subject (required): links to the patient involved in the encounter
• participant.individual: links to practitioners and other participants in the encounter
• location.location: links to locations where the encounter occurred
• diagnosis.condition: links to condition outcomes from the encounter

For detailed information about reference table structure and indexing, see the Reference Tables documentation.

Encounter Table:

Primary Keys:

• encounter_id

Foreign Keys:

• patient_id

Column	Data Type	Description
encounter_id	varchar	Unique identifier for the encounter
patient_id	varchar	Unique identifier for the patient
status	varchar	Status of the encounter. Possible values: – planned: The encounter has not yet started. – arrived: The patient is present for the encounter, but the encounter has not yet begun. – triaged: The patient has been assessed for the priority of care. – in-progress: The encounter has begun and the patient is present. – onleave: The patient has temporarily left, but is expected to return. – finished: The encounter has ended. – cancelled: The encounter has been cancelled before it started. – entered-in-error: The encounter was entered in error and should not be considered valid. – unknown: The status of the encounter is unknown or cannot be determined.
start_date	date	Start date of the encounter
end_date	date	End date of the encounter
length_of_stay	integer	Length of stay in days
act_code	varchar	ACT code for encounter class
act_display	varchar	Human-readable description of ACT code
source_class_code	varchar	Source class code for encounter
source_class_display	varchar	Human-readable description of source class
source_class_system	varchar	Original class system from source system
type_hl7_code	varchar	HL7 encounter type code
type_hl7_display	varchar	Human-readable description of HL7 encounter type
source_type_code	varchar	Original type code from source system
source_type_display	varchar	Original type display from source system
source_type_system	varchar	Original type system from source system
discharge_disposition_hl7_code	varchar	HL7 discharge disposition code
discharge_disposition_hl7_display	varchar	Human-readable description of discharge disposition
source_discharge_disposition_code	varchar	Original discharge disposition code from source system
source_discharge_disposition_display	varchar	Original discharge disposition display from source system
source_discharge_disposition_system	varchar	Original discharge disposition system from source system
reason_snomed_code	varchar	SNOMED CT reason code
reason_snomed_display	varchar	Human-readable description of SNOMED CT reason
meta_source	varchar	Source document filename from FHIR meta.source
data_source	varchar	Deprecated. Use meta_source instead.
data_source_ext	varchar	Integration source of the data, derived from FHIR extension