Hello,
I would like to create a location representing a Patient home address to use for instance in a procedure;
I understand that I can set this location as “Patient home address” by using location.mode
however I was wondering why there is no link between a location and Patient in the data model. A patient has an address but no reference to location, and in location no reference to patient…It’s like the patient address is duplicated in a location but lost in a middle of nowhere with no link to existing ressource (patient).
It’s not common for a server to store a Location instance for a patient’s home address (or any other ‘incidental’ location. Location instances that are stored as independent instances are typically dedicated structures - hospitals, clinics, labs, etc. If you need to represent an incidental location (patient’s home, side of the road, etc.), that Location instance will typically be a ‘contained’ resource nested inside the procedure, encounter or other relevant resource.
Patients are generally only associated with a Location in the context of a specific encounter or procedure - the health system doesn’t usually track where a patient is at all times. You could create an association between a patient address and a Location with an extension if you wished, but I’m not sure if the use of it would be sufficiently widespread that HL7 would consider defining it as a ‘standard’ extension. You could propose a change request if you can make a good case for it though.