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Transfer of Care message specifications

This page contains the new and previous Transfer of Care interoperability specifications.

Page contents

The following items are within the current scope for Transfer of Care.

  • Inpatient and Day Case Discharge Summary Document - an ITK3 FHIR document containing Transfer of Care information supporting inpatient and day case discharges typically between an acute hospital and GP practice.
  • Emergency Care Discharge Summary Document – an ITK3 FHIR document containing Transfer of Care information supporting a discharge typically between an emergency care department and a GP practice.
  • Inpatient and Day Case Discharge Summary (Mental Health) Document - an ITK3 FHIR document containing Transfer of Care information supporting a mental health adult discharge summary to a GP practice.
  • Outpatient Clinic Letter Document - an ITK3 FHIR document containing Transfer of Care information between the hospital clinic and the GP and other relevant parties following a consultation in a clinic.

Live implementable specification versions

The table below contains the finalised version of the Transfer of Care specifications. The latest specifications are to be used for production capable implementations.

All versions are based on the FHIR® STU3 standard.

Transfer of Care specification Status Release version Release date Containing capabilities Details
Acute Inpatient Discharge live eDischarge 2.9.0-live 30 July 2021 Transfer of Care information to support inpatient discharge summaries Current version of specification for eDischarge. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.
Emergency Care Discharge live Emergency Care eDischarge 2.9.0-live 30 July 2021 Transfer of Care information to support Emergency Care Discharge document Current version of the specification for Emergency Care Discharge. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.
Mental Health Discharge live Mental Health eDischarge 2.9.0-live 30 July 2021 Transfer of Care information to support Mental Health Discharge document Current version of the specification for Mental Health Inpatient Discharge. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.
Outpatient Clinic Letter live Outpatient Letter 2.9.0-live 30 July 2021 Transfer of Care information to support outpatient attendance Current version of the specification for outpatient clinic letters. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.

Previous specification versions

The table below contains the previous versions of the Transfer of Care specifications.

All versions are based on the FHIR® STU3 standard.

Transfer of Care specification Status Release version Release date Containing capabilities Details
Acute Inpatient Discharge live eDischarge 2.8.0-live 29 March 2021 Transfer of Care information to support inpatient discharge summaries Current version of the specification for eDischarge. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.
Emergency Care Discharge live Emergency Care eDischarge 2.8.0-live 29 March 2021 Transfer of Care information to support Emergency Care Discharge document Current version of the specification for Emergency Care Discharge. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.
Mental Health Discharge live Mental Health eDischarge 2.8.0-live 29 March 2021 Transfer of Care information to support Mental Health Discharge document Current version of the specification for Mental Health Inpatient Discharge. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.
Outpatient Clinic Letter live Outpatient Letter 2.8.0-live 29 March 2021 Transfer of Care information to support outpatient attendance Current version of the specification for outpatient clinic letters. This specification may be subject to controlled future changes.

Additional guidance

Item name Description Link
Minimum data set for FHIR Documents and ITK Responses A document to assist implementers with the minimum data requirements for ToC Minimum Data Set for ToC

Development and testing tooling

Item name Description Link
Clinical Document Viewer Tool

A tool to allow rendering of FHIR documents and included resources.

Note:

  • supplied “as is” for the purpose of testing and development only
  • this tool is not integral to any formal conformance or assurance
  • documents and resources rendered successfully using this tool may not be valid against NHS Digital specifications
  • it is not provided for inclusion in any Transfer of Care production system
 Clinical Document Viewer Tool
Exemplar Stylesheet (XSLT)

A sample Stylesheet for rendering a FHIR Document (XML to HTML)

Note:

  • this is supplied “as is” for the purpose of testing and development only
  • documents which are rendered successfully using this stylesheet may not be valid against the NHS Digital specifications and this stylesheet forms no part of any conformance or assurance
  • this stylesheet may be used, modified or adapted as required by implementers but solely at their own risk
 Stylesheet (XSLT)
ITK3 Test Harness A synthetic receiver of ITK3 Documents and Messages that supports the response and error behaviour defined in the ITK3 Message Distribution specification. ITK3 Test Harness

ITK specification versions

Item name Description Link
ITK specification versions Previous, current and future versions of the Interoperability Tool Kit ITK specifications

Last edited: 8 February 2023 9:50 am