How to handle updates to documents
Note: In FHIR, the terminology to update a document is known as a
replacement.
The Send Document capability allows for the updating of a previously sent document.
This replacement is at a whole document level, in that the original document is replaced by a new one and the old document is only kept for audit purposes.
A sender may choose to send a new replacement document for several reasons, for example:
- the original document contained an error, identified after the document was sent
- the sender has more up-to-date or complete information - for example, the original is correct but further information is now available to make the document more complete or detailed
- receivers of updated versions of documents MUST process the updated document and archive the previous one