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Version: 3.1

Patient

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.

What it represents​

In Care's FHIR-aligned model, a patient maps to the Patient resource. It holds:

  • Identity — name, date of birth, sex, photo, and government or facility identifiers
  • Contact — phone, address, and emergency contacts
  • Administrative context — registration status, facility association, and tags used by your deployment
  • Clinical linkage — references to encounters, conditions, allergies, and other resources in the record

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.

Identifiers​

Patients are located using one or more identifiers, depending on how your deployment is configured:

Identifier typeTypical use
Facility MRNPrimary key inside a hospital or clinic
National health IDABDM, ABHA, or other national rails
Program IDPublic health or campaign-specific registries

Identifiers must be unique within the scope your administrator defines. Duplicate detection during registration uses these fields.

Lifecycle​

Register → Active → (optional) Inactive / Deceased
  • Register — a patient record is created with minimum demographics
  • Active — the record is used for encounters and orders
  • Inactive — retained for history but hidden from routine search (configurable)
  • Deceased — administrative closure; clinical history remains auditable

Permissions​

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.