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PractitionerRole

Overview

The PractitionerRole resource defines the roles, specialties, and relationships that practitioners have with organizations, locations, and healthcare services. This resource connects individual practitioners to their professional contexts within healthcare organizations.

Use Cases:

  • Identify practitioner roles and specialties
  • Track practitioner-organization relationships
  • Reference practitioner roles in care documentation
  • Support care team coordination

Relationships to Other Resources:

  • Practitioner - Individual healthcare providers performing the role
  • Organization - Organizations where practitioners work
  • Location - Physical locations where practitioners provide services
  • Provenance - Audit trail information

Resource Schema

Key fields in the PractitionerRole resource:

{
"resourceType": "PractitionerRole",
"id": "example-practitioner-role",
"active": true,
"period": {
"start": "2020-01-01",
"end": "2025-12-31"
},
"practitioner": {
"reference": "Practitioner/prac-123",
"display": "Dr. Sarah Johnson"
},
"organization": {
"reference": "Organization/org-456",
"display": "Community Health Center"
},
"code": [
{
"coding": [
{
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/practitioner-role",
"code": "doctor",
"display": "Doctor"
}
]
}
],
"specialty": [
{
"coding": [
{
"system": "http://nucc.org/provider-taxonomy",
"code": "207R00000X",
"display": "Internal Medicine"
}
]
}
],
"location": [
{
"reference": "Location/loc-789",
"display": "Main Campus"
}
],
"telecom": [
{
"system": "phone",
"value": "(555) 123-4567",
"use": "work"
},
{
"system": "email",
"value": "sjohnson@example.com",
"use": "work"
}
]
}

Key Fields:

  • practitioner - Reference to the individual practitioner
  • organization - Organization where the role is performed
  • specialty - Medical specialties for this role
  • location - Where the practitioner provides services
  • code - Type of role (doctor, nurse, etc.)
  • telecom - Contact information for this role

Operations

The Certified API PractitionerRole resource supports the following standard operations. However, support varies by the targeted CareRecord or solution.

CareRecord / SolutionCreateReadUpdateSearch
GEHRIMED-Yes-Yes
myAvatar-Yes-Yes
myEvolv-Yes-Yes
myUnity-Yes-Yes
TheraOffice-Yes-Yes

Read

Retrieve a specific PractitionerRole resource by its ID.

info

Not all Netsmart solutions support PractitionerRole search. See supported operations table above and consult your target solution's documentation for more information.

Search for practitioner roles using various criteria.

GET Method

Use GET for simple searches with parameters in the query string.

GET /PractitionerRole?parameter=value

POST Method

Use POST for complex searches with form-encoded parameters.

POST /PractitionerRole/_search

Search Parameters

Search Parameters:

ParameterTypeRequiredDescriptionExample
activetokenNoWhether this practitioner role record is in active useactive=value
datedateNoThe period during which the practitioner is authorized to perform in these role(s)date=value
emailtokenNoA value in an email contactemail=value
locationreferenceNoOne of the locations at which this practitioner provides carelocation=value
organizationreferenceNoThe identity of the organization the practitioner represents / acts on behalf oforganization=value
phonetokenNoA value in a phone contactphone=value
practitionerreferenceNoPractitioner that is able to provide the defined services for the organizationpractitioner=value
roletokenNoThe practitioner can perform this role at for the organizationrole=value
specialtytokenNoThe practitioner has this specialty at an organizationspecialty=value

| _lastUpdated | date | No | Only return resources which were last updated as specified by the given range | _lastUpdated=value | | _revinclude | special | No | Include Provenance resource(s) that reference the matched search results. Allowed: "Provenance:target" | _revinclude=value | | _id | string | Yes | The ID of the resource | _id=value |

Examples

Read Request

Read PractitionerRole
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/provider/patient-access/v2/{tenant-id}/PractitionerRole/example-practitioner-role" \
-H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
-H "Accept: application/fhir+json"

Common Search Patterns

Find roles by practitioner:

GET /PractitionerRole?practitioner=Practitioner/prac-123

Search by organization:

GET /PractitionerRole?organization=Organization/org-456

Find roles by specialty:

GET /PractitionerRole?specialty=207R00000X

Search by location:

GET /PractitionerRole?location=Location/loc-789

Find active roles:

GET /PractitionerRole?active=true

Request Examples

Search by Organization
curl -X POST https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/provider/patient-access/v2/{tenant-id}/PractitionerRole/_search \
-H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
-H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-d "organization=Organization/org-456"
Search by Practitioner with Includes
curl -X GET "https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/provider/patient-access/v2/{tenant-id}/PractitionerRole?practitioner=Practitioner/prac-123&_include=PractitionerRole:organization&_include=PractitionerRole:location" \
-H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
-H "Accept: application/fhir+json"
Search by Specialty
curl -X POST https://fhir.netsmartcloud.com/provider/patient-access/v2/{tenant-id}/PractitionerRole/_search \
-H "Authorization: {Bearer Token}" \
-H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
-H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
-d "specialty=207R00000X&active=true"

Integration Patterns

Common Workflows

  1. Provider Role Discovery: Find practitioner roles within organizations
  2. Care Team Assembly: Reference practitioner roles in care plans and encounters
  3. Specialty Lookup: Search for practitioners by medical specialty
  4. Location-Based Search: Find practitioners at specific locations

Include Parameters

Use _include to fetch related resources:

# Get roles with practitioner details
GET /PractitionerRole?organization=Organization/org-456&_include=PractitionerRole:practitioner

# Get roles with organization and location details
GET /PractitionerRole?practitioner=Practitioner/prac-123&_include=PractitionerRole:organization&_include=PractitionerRole:location

Error Handling

For detailed error codes and handling, see the Error Handling documentation.

PractitionerRole-Specific Error Scenarios

  • 404 Not Found: PractitionerRole ID doesn't exist or role is inactive
  • 400 Bad Request: Invalid specialty codes or malformed reference parameters
  • Empty Results: No practitioner roles match the search criteria

Troubleshooting Tips

  • No Specialty Results: Verify specialty codes use NUCC taxonomy format
  • Reference Errors: Ensure referenced practitioners, organizations, and locations exist
  • Include Errors: Verify include parameters match supported values

Supported Profiles

This API supports the following FHIR profiles: