Supported FHIR Interactions and Operations

General Limitations

Keep in mind that a FHIR server using or extending the Resource Repository has the following limitations:

• Does not support searching across multiple resource types. For example GET [base]?_id=1 is not supported.

• You cannot perform a search on all resource types within a compartment. For example, you cannot search for [base]/Patient/10000001/?_id=008. Therefore, searches within the context of a compartment must specify a resource type in that compartment. For example, you can use [base]/Patient/100000001/Observation to return all Observations in the specific patient’s compartment or [base]/Patient/100000001/Observation?status=final to search for a subset of Observations within the compartment. If you want to retrieve a Patient’s entire compartment, use the $everything operation (for example, [base]/Patient/100000001/$everything).

Search Parameter Types

Each search parameter has a search parameter typeOpens in a new tab that determines how the parameter behaves.

Parameters

The following summarizes FHIR server support for standard search parametersOpens in a new tab when retrieving resources from the Resource Repository.

Modifiers

ModifiersOpens in a new tab can be added to the end of a parameter to affect the results of the search.

Prefixes

When using search parameters of type number, date, and quantity, you can add a prefixOpens in a new tab to the parameter’s value to affect what resources match the search. For example, [parameter]=le100 returns values that are less than or equal to 100.

Search Result Parameters

Search result parametersOpens in a new tab help manage the resources returned by a search.

Recursive Behavior of the _type Operation Query Parameter for $everything

When a list of resource types is provided in the _type query parameter for the $everything operation, the compartment search will return only resources of the type listed. Recursive resource reference retrieval in the compartment will skip over references to resource types that are not specified in the _types parameter. Some examples illustrate how the _type query parameter for $everything operates on the PatientOpens in a new tab compartment:

1. /Patient/123/$everything?_type=DiagnosticReport,Observation — returns DiagnosticReport and Observation resources but not the Patient resource.

2. /Patient/123/$everything?_type=Observation — returns the patient's Observation resources, even though the referring DiagnosticReport resources are not included, because Observation is also in the Patient compartment.

3. /Patient/123/$everything?_type=Practitioner — returns nothing. Practitioner is not in the Patient compartment, and no other resource type that could refer to Practitioner was specified.

4. /Patient/123/$everything?_type=Patient,DiagnosticReport,Practitioner — returns the Patient resource, all of the DiagnosticReport resources, and only the Practitioner resources directly referred to by the returned DiagnosticReport resources.