[Gnumed-devel] Should patients have a "status" ?

[Jim Busser]

In GNUmed, the patient identity table includes a column "deceased" but other 
than this there is no way to designate whether a patient remains a current 
patient or is no longer receiving care.

It is customary, in the case of the question being asked, to be able to say 
whether or not a patient is still ("remains") a patient in the praxis. This is 
important in situations where some understanding was reached with a patient 
that they intend to obtain care elsewhere and to hold no ongoing expectation of 
responsibility from the praxis doctor(s).

In some situations this is referred to among doctors as "firing" however the 
patient may consider themself to have "fired" their doctor, or it may have been 
a mutual parting as may involve a geographic move.

There is also the possibility that a patient was referred by their usual 
physician / provider during an episode which needed the help of a consultant 
who, at the conclusion of the episode, does not again expect to see the patient 
but who may be willing to do so if the patient was re-referred.

For all of these reasons, I would suggest adding to dem.identity either a field

        discontinued_in_praxis (datetime)

or, better

        status_in_praxis (default: 'active' vs 'inactive', 'ineligible')

        status_last_updated (date)

-- Jim