ePMA Implementation Guidance for FHIR STU3

Please note: This guidance has been superseded by the Implementation guide for digitial medicines, which contains up-to-date information.

Identity validation errors

Provider systems MUST respond by returning one of the following OperationOutcome error codes where FHIR resource identity error scenarios are encountered:

HTTP code	Issue type	Error code	Error message
`400`	value	`INVALID_IDENTIFIER_SYSTEM`	Invalid identifier system
`400`	value	`INVALID_IDENTIFIER_VALUE`	Invalid identifier value
`400`	value	`INVALID_NHS_NUMBER`	NHS number invalid
`404`	not-found	`ORGANISATION_NOT_FOUND`	Organisation record not found
`404`	not-found	`PATIENT_NOT_FOUND`	Patient record not found
`404`	not-found	`PRACTITIONER_NOT_FOUND`	Practitioner record not found
`404`	not-found	`NO_RECORD_FOUND`	No record found

Example: An invalid NHS Number was supplied

In this scenario an invalid NHS number value was supplied.

The JSON below represents an example response that could be returned.

{
    "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
    "meta": {
        "profile": [
            "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/Spine-OperationOutcome-1"
        ]
    },
    "issue": [
        {
            "severity": "error",
            "code": "value",
            "details": {
                "coding": [
                    {
                        "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
                        "code": "INVALID_NHS_NUMBER",
                        "display": "Invalid NHS number"
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    ]
}

Example: The patient could not be found

In this scenario a valid NHS number value was supplied; however, a local record did not exist for the patient in question.

The JSON below represents an example response that could be returned.

{
    "resourceType": "OperationOutcome",
    "meta": {
        "profile": [
            "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/StructureDefinition/Spine-OperationOutcome-1"
        ]
    },
    "issue": [
        {
            "severity": "error",
            "code": "not-found",
            "details": {
                "coding": [
                    {
                        "system": "https://fhir.nhs.uk/STU3/ValueSet/Spine-ErrorOrWarningCode-1",
                        "code": "PATIENT_NOT_FOUND",
                        "display": "Patient not found"
                    }
            ]
        }
    }
  ]
}