The EpisodeOfCare Profile contains information about an association of a Omnibus Care Plan (OCP) Patient with a Healthcare Provider for a period of time under which related healthcare activities may occur. In many cases, this represents a period of time where the Healthcare Provider has some level of responsibility for the care of the patient regarding a specific condition or problem, even if not currently participating in an encounter. The EpisodeOfCare profile is primarily used as a tracking resource, and contains details about the purpose of the care and can exist without any activities. The minimal information that would be required in an episode of care would be a OCP patient, organization and a reason for the ongoing association. Other reasons for creating an EpisodeOfCare could be for tracking the details required for government reporting or billing. The primary difference between the EpisodeOfCare and the Encounter is that the Encounter records the details of an activity directly relating to the patient, while the EpisodeOfCare is the container that can link a series of Encounters together for problems/issues.