Encounter Place
An encounter place can take one of two forms.
- A Service Encounter Place, where patient contacts occur
- An Administrative Encounter Place, a concept that defines a group of encounter places for administrative or reporting purposes
Service Encounter Places
- The physical place at which a service is delivered. It is usually a clinic (for example, Millennium Health Service Clinic) but may also be a non-clinic location at which services are delivered (for example, Fremantle Prison). In both cases, this is where the provider and the consumer are when the service is delivered. Use encounter places in this way when it is necessary to report by specific places (for example, specific prisons).
- The physical place from which a service is delivered. For example, Millennium Health Service Clinic or Eastern Branch Clinic. This is where the provider has come from in order to deliver the service, and is usually the place of employment, where the service is being provided from. Use encounter places in this way when it is not necessary to report by specific places. For example, Client's homes.
Note: Places are sometimes used as subdivisions of a health organisation, for example, General Clinic and Dental Clinic. In this case, do not define places that overlap with each other. For example, if Millennium Health service has two subdivisions, General and Dental, do not also define Millennium Health Service as a third encounter place. Reporting is done for the whole of health service and also by encounter place. If both subdivisions and branch clinics are defined as encounter places, it may not be possible to do aggregate reporting for a subdivided clinic. Consider using programs as an alternative to encounter places for subdivisions.
Administrative Encounter Places
- An administrative area to which a subset of Encounter Places belongs
- A reporting region to which a subset of Encounter Places belongs
An Administrative Encounter Place may comprise further, smaller Administrative Encounter Places with as many levels as required.
All Administrative Encounter Places must comprise at least one Administrative Encounter Place or Service Encounter Place for the places to be meaningful. No place may belong to another Service Encounter Place. Places may belong to at most one Administrative Encounter Place.
User Interface
Encounter places are displayed in the status bar: Encounter Place (Encounter Mode) Program
