Encounter Type

Name	Description
Data Domain:	Encounter Details
Data Type:	Text
Definition	There are a wide variety of encounter types that can be used in Epic. Some common encounter types include: Hospital Encounter An encounter that occurs within the hospital. Most inpatient admissions will be classified as hospital encounters. Office Visit A typical visit to the physician’s office. Most standard outpatient encounters will be classified as office visits. Appointment Appointments are typically used for upcoming encounters that either have not occurred yet or encounters that were cancelled or the patient did not show. When the encounter occurs, the encounter type is typically changed to a more accurate type (i.e. Office Visit). Exceptions to this behaviour are commonly associated with scheduled procedures, such as radiology imaging, which remain as ‘Appointments’ after the encounter is completed. To assist with identifying the types of encounters you may be interested in, encounter types are grouped under similar categories. For example, “Clinical Encounter Types” are all encounter types where a provider physically interacted with a patient in a clinical setting. Tip! If you’re interested in outpatient encounters, and want to make sure those encounters were clinical (or face-to-face encounters), it’s a good idea to use the items in this folder to specify that. (In fact, you can drag the whole “Clinical Encounter Types” folder into your query.) This will help ensure that you’re not counting patients who have only had system-generated, documentation, or telephone encounters, for example.
Source:	Epic and Legacy*