How to retrieve retrieve Encounters within a given date range using EPIC / FHIR API

Question

I'm working on a conceptual Java/Spring Boot application, with a developer account on fhir.epic.com. This app is largely used for statistical analysis and connects using their Backend system configuration.

I have a use case, where on a regular interval (every night), I wish to make a request to retrieve new encounters. I can see that the Encounter Search API allows for date ranges, however, there is a requirement on Patient Id. At this stage, I have no knowledge of the patient, nor interest.

I thought the EpisodeOfCare search API might be an alternative, but this also requires a patient ID.

I can't see any other available API that would allow me to achieve what I'm attempting, does anyone know whether this is possible?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Epic, and pretty much every other EHR, does not allow you to query for all newly created encounters regardless of the patient. Some possible alternatives to consider are:

• If you're interested in encounters from a specific set of patients (e.g., all patients with a diagnosis of diabetes), work with the health system to establish a Group and use Bulk FHIR to retrieve their encounters. Note that this won't necessarily tell you which Encounters are new; you would need to determine that from the data or simply overwrite what you already have.
• Leverage Epic Kit, which is available through Vendor Services
• Set up an HL7 interface to receive messages whenever there is a new encounter