Resource type: organization

Description

A formally or informally recognized grouping of people or organizations formed for the purpose of achieving some form of collective action. Includes companies, institutions, corporations, departments, community groups, healthcare practice groups, payer/insurer, etc.

Elements

PathShortDefinitionComments
A grouping of people or organizations with a common purposeA formally or informally recognized grouping of people or organizations formed for the purpose of achieving some form of collective action. Includes companies, institutions, corporations, departments, community groups, healthcare practice groups, payer/insurer, etc.
identifierIdentifies this organization across multiple systemsIdentifier for the organization that is used to identify the organization across multiple disparate systems.
activeWhether the organization's record is still in active useWhether the organization's record is still in active use.This active flag is not intended to be used to mark an organization as temporarily closed or under construction. Instead the Location(s) within the Organization should have the suspended status. If further details of the reason for the suspension are required, then an extension on this element should be used. This element is labeled as a modifier because it may be used to mark that the resource was created in error.
typeKind of organizationThe kind(s) of organization that this is.Organizations can be corporations, wards, sections, clinical teams, government departments, etc. Note that code is generally a classifier of the type of organization; in many applications, codes are used to identity a particular organization (say, ward) as opposed to another of the same type - these are identifiers, not codes When considering if multiple types are appropriate, you should evaluate if child organizations would be a more appropriate use of the concept, as different types likely are in different sub-areas of the organization. This is most likely to be used where type values have orthogonal values, such as a religious, academic and medical center. We expect that some jurisdictions will profile this optionality to be a single cardinality.
nameName used for the organizationA name associated with the organization.If the name of an organization changes, consider putting the old name in the alias column so that it can still be located through searches.
aliasA list of alternate names that the organization is known as, or was known as in the pastA list of alternate names that the organization is known as, or was known as in the past.There are no dates associated with the alias/historic names, as this is not intended to track when names were used, but to assist in searching so that older names can still result in identifying the organization.
telecomA contact detail for the organizationA contact detail for the organization.The use code 'home' is not to be used. Note that these contacts are not the contact details of people who are employed by or represent the organization, but official contacts for the organization itself.
addressAn address for the organizationAn address for the organization.Organization may have multiple addresses with different uses or applicable periods. The use code 'home' is not to be used.
partOfThe organization of which this organization forms a partThe organization of which this organization forms a part.
contactContact for the organization for a certain purposeContact for the organization for a certain purpose.Where multiple contacts for the same purpose are provided there is a standard extension that can be used to determine which one is the preferred contact to use.
contact.idUnique id for inter-element referencingUnique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.
contact.extensionAdditional content defined by implementationsMay be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension.There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.
contact.modifierExtensionExtensions that cannot be ignored even if unrecognizedMay be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element and that modifies the understanding of the element in which it is contained and/or the understanding of the containing element's descendants. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions. Modifier extensions SHALL NOT change the meaning of any elements on Resource or DomainResource (including cannot change the meaning of modifierExtension itself).There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.
contact.purposeThe type of contactIndicates a purpose for which the contact can be reached.
contact.nameA name associated with the contactA name associated with the contact.
contact.telecomContact details (telephone, email, etc.) for a contactA contact detail (e.g. a telephone number or an email address) by which the party may be contacted.
contact.addressVisiting or postal addresses for the contactVisiting or postal addresses for the contact.
endpointTechnical endpoints providing access to services operated for the organizationTechnical endpoints providing access to services operated for the organization.

Scope and Usage

This resource may be used in a shared registry of contact and other information for various organizations or it can be used merely as a support for other resources that need to reference organizations, perhaps as a document, message or as a contained resource. If using a registry approach, it's entirely possible for multiple registries to exist, each dealing with different types or levels of organization.

Boundaries and Relationships

The Organization resource is used for collections of people that have come together to achieve an objective. The Group resource is used to identify a collection of people (or animals, devices, etc.) that are gathered for the purpose of analysis or acting upon, but are not expected to act themselves.

The Organization resource often exists as a hierarchy of organization resources, using the part-of property to provide the association of the child to its parent organization.
This organizational hierarchy helps communicate the conceptual structure, whereas the Location resource provides the physical representation of the hierarchy.
The linkage between Organization and Location is from each point in the location hierarchy to the appropriate level in the Organization hierarchy. These links don't all have to be to the top level Organization.
When populating the organization and location hierarchies there is often not a clear distinction between these 2, however to assist in making the decision, Locations are always used for recording where a service occurs, and hence where encounters and observations are associated. The Organization property on these resources might not be the location where the service took place.

Notes:

Example Organization Hierarchy:

An example organization hierarchy should help give some guidance as to one example of how a location hierarchy could look within a fictitious Medical Organization.
(The nesting here would be the "part-of" structure of the Organization resource)

Burgers University Medical Center
    Eastern Services (prov)
        Emergency Dept
        Oncology Dept
            Nuclear Medicine Research Trials (edu)
        Maternity Ward
        Childrens Ward
        Day Procedures Unit
    Mobile Services (Ambulance)
    Research Center (edu)
        Nuclear Medicine  (edu)
    Burgers University (edu)
        Nuclear Medicine Faculty (edu)
        Undergraduate Medicine (edu)
        ...
	

Note that physical structures of this hierarchy are not present - these are defined by a Location hierarchy.

Search Parameters

activeIs the Organization record activeOrganization.active
addressA server defined search that may match any of the string fields in the Address, including line, city, district, state, country, postalCode, and/or textOrganization.address
address-cityA city specified in an addressOrganization.address.city
address-countryA country specified in an addressOrganization.address.country
address-postalcodeA postal code specified in an addressOrganization.address.postalCode
address-stateA state specified in an addressOrganization.address.state
address-useA use code specified in an addressOrganization.address.use
endpointTechnical endpoints providing access to services operated for the organizationOrganization.endpoint
identifierAny identifier for the organization (not the accreditation issuer's identifier)Organization.identifier
nameA portion of the organization's name or aliasOrganization.name | Organization.alias
partofAn organization of which this organization forms a partOrganization.partOf
phoneticA portion of the organization's name using some kind of phonetic matching algorithmOrganization.name
typeA code for the type of organizationOrganization.type

Extension Definitions

These are extension definitions for this resource defined by the spec