The service directory specification harmonizes how data regarding healthcare services and providers is structured and provides standardized interactions with that information (e.g., Querying service/provider information). This directory would also store relationships between the service, service providers and their roles, organizations, and associated locations, as well as details on how to contact them. This standardization will enable users (regardless of jurisdiction) to search for, locate, and communicate with healthcare providers, and help them search, plan, and choose the right health services for their patient(s) needs.
The initial version of the implementation guide will not cover:
Resources used within this guide include:
HealthcareService - A HealthcareService will have a unique identifier. Healthcare services include, but are not limited to, primary care, home care, or in patient care such as surgical services. Additional attributes such as location of service, contract person, hours of operation etc. can be included.
Location = A Location is a physical place where care can be delivered. Examples of Locations include buildings, wards, rooms, and vehicles. A Location can also represent a jurisdiction such as a health region or zones. A Location will have attributes such as a unique identifier, and may have attributes such as hours of operation, geographic information (address, geocode), hours operation. A Location may be associated with an Organization. A Location may also be in a hierarchy with other Locations.
Location for Distance - This profile allows you to create a distance based search for a CA:CSD Location.
Location for Facility - A Facility is defined as a pairing of a Location and an Organization. Facilities are sites where care is provided such as clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, etc. A facilities will have attributes such as a unique identifier, geographic location (address, geocode), contact information, hours of operation, etc. This profile covers the location porition of the facility.
Location for Jurisdiction - A Jurisdiction consists of a pairing of a Location Resource and Organization resource. A jurisdiction is a political administrative unit or other territory over which authority is exercised. Jurisdictions include political administrative units such as village districts or regions.
Organization - An organization is an “umbrella” entity that may be considered an administrative body under whose auspices care services are provided. These may include a Health Region, Non-Government Organization, a healthcare partner with multiple locations, or eve a one-physician family practice. An organization has a unique identifier and may have additional administrative attributes such as contact person, mailing address, etc. Departments of an institution, or other administrative units, may be represented as child Organizations of a parent Organization.
Organization for Facility - A Facility is defined as a pairing of a Location and an Organization. Facilities are sites where care is provided such as clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, etc. A facilities will have attributes such as a unique identifier, geographic location (address, geocode), contact information, hours of operation, etc. This profile covers the organization porition of the facility.
Organization for Jurisdiction - A Jurisdiction consists of a pairing of a Location Resource and Organization resource. A jurisdiction is a political administrative unit or other territory over which authority is exercised. Jurisdictions include political administrative units such as village districts or regions.
OrganizationAffiliation - An OrganizationAffiliation is used to identify a relationship between organizations that are not hierarchical in nature. Examples of such relationships are supply chains or administrative reporting. An OrganizationAffiliation resource can also be used to indicate a routing path to other organizations that cannot be reached directly.
Practitioner - A practitioner is any person that is providing cares services. This included licensed practitioners such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, as well as non-licensed roles such as community health workers, home care providers, etc. A Practitioner may be associated with one or more Locations and one or Organizations, and one or more Healthcare Services. This relationship is defined using the PractitionerRole.
PractitionerRole - A PractitionerRole is used to show what Healthcare Service, a Practitioner provides at a particular Location for an Organization.
Endpoint - An Endpoint is used to allow access to an Organization, OrganizationAffilication, Location, HealthcareService, or PractitionerRole. Although recommended, the Endpoint is not required to be a FHIR server, but may be a webservice or another mechanism. The omission of an Endpoint on a resource does not mean it is not accessible, as it may be reachable through another resource relationship. Additional guidance on the use of this resource can be found here.
For additional defined terms please go to the Infoscribe page here.
The CA:CSD specification was developed in collaboration with the Building Blocks Working Group and its members. This group will continued to be utilized in the future to further develop this guide. If you are interested in being a champion of this work and a voice in the group please join the working group on InfoCentral: Building Blocks Working Group
To provide feedback on the CA:CSD specifications please review to the following page to obtain access to the Jira project. pan-Canadian Interoperability Specifications Feedback - Pan Canadian Interoperability - InfoScribe (infoway-inforoute.ca)
The CA:CSD Jira project can be found at: https://informs.infoway-inforoute.ca/projects/CSD