|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +sidebar_position: 1 |
| 3 | +--- |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +# Patient |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +A **patient** in Care is a person who receives care through your facility or program. It is the longitudinal anchor for clinical documentation — every encounter, observation, order, and care plan links back to a patient record. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +## What it represents |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +In Care's FHIR-aligned model, a patient maps to the **Patient** resource. It holds: |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +- **Identity** — name, date of birth, sex, photo, and government or facility identifiers |
| 14 | +- **Contact** — phone, address, and emergency contacts |
| 15 | +- **Administrative context** — registration status, facility association, and tags used by your deployment |
| 16 | +- **Clinical linkage** — references to encounters, conditions, allergies, and other resources in the record |
| 17 | + |
| 18 | +A patient is not the same as a single visit. One patient can have many encounters over time; the patient record is the container that makes that history coherent. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +## Identifiers |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +Patients are located using one or more identifiers, depending on how your deployment is configured: |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +| Identifier type | Typical use | |
| 25 | +| --- | --- | |
| 26 | +| Facility MRN | Primary key inside a hospital or clinic | |
| 27 | +| National health ID | ABDM, ABHA, or other national rails | |
| 28 | +| Program ID | Public health or campaign-specific registries | |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +Identifiers must be unique within the scope your administrator defines. Duplicate detection during registration uses these fields. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +## Lifecycle |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +``` |
| 35 | +Register → Active → (optional) Inactive / Deceased |
| 36 | +``` |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +- **Register** — a patient record is created with minimum demographics |
| 39 | +- **Active** — the record is used for encounters and orders |
| 40 | +- **Inactive** — retained for history but hidden from routine search (configurable) |
| 41 | +- **Deceased** — administrative closure; clinical history remains auditable |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +## Permissions |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +Who can view or edit patient demographics is controlled by role-based access. Clinical staff typically can read full records; registration staff can create and update demographics; some fields may be restricted by facility or ward. |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +## Related |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +- Flow: [Create a patient](../../flows/clinical/create-patient.mdx) |
| 50 | +- Playbook: [Outpatient registration](/deployments/hmis/playbooks/outpatient-registration) (HMIS) |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | +## FHIR reference |
| 53 | + |
| 54 | +Care exposes patients through FHIR R5 `Patient` resources. See your deployment's API base URL for `GET /Patient` and `POST /Patient` when integrating externally. |
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