Finnish Scheduling
2.0.0-rc3 - ballot

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Official URL: https://hl7.fi/fhir/finnish-scheduling/ImplementationGuide/hl7.fhir.fi.scheduling | Version: 2.0.0-rc3
Draft as of 2025-08-27 | Computable Name: FinnishScheduling

### Finnish FHIR Scheduling

This is the Finnish HL7® FHIR® implementation guide for Scheduling.

This is an R4 IG. None of the features it uses are changed in R4B, so it can be used as is with R4B systems. Packages for both R4 (hl7.fhir.fi.scheduling.r4) and R4B (hl7.fhir.fi.scheduling.r4b) are available. There is no plan yet to base this implementation guide on FHIR R5.

IG | Package | FHIR | Comment
--- | --- | --- | ---
Finnish Scheduling | hl7.fhir.fi.scheduling#2.0.0-rc3 | R4 |
HL7 Terminology (THO) | hl7.terminology.r4#6.5.0 | R4 | Automatically added as a dependency - all IGs depend on HL7 Terminology
FHIR Extensions Pack | hl7.fhir.uv.extensions.r4#5.3.0-ballot-tc1 | R4 | Automatically added as a dependency - all IGs depend on the HL7 Extension Pack
Finnish Base Profiles | hl7.fhir.fi.base#1.0.0 | R4 |

The guide is based on two earlier implementation guides:

- FinnishScheduling R4, published in 2020, presented the Finnish logical model for appointments in FHIR.
- FinnishAppointment, published in 2021, concentrated more on actual interactions performed by systems when booking and managing appointments.

The history page offers more historical context.

#### Development of this implementation guide has been stalled before official publication.

The Finnish FHIR community agrees that this implementation guide does not properly address the needs for interoperability in scheduling in Finland. See the ballot comments for details.

At the moment (summer of 2025) there is not enough interest in the community to continue work on the guide.

The implementation guide has been deliberately left in ballot state to reflect this decision, and to wait for it to perhaps be picked up some time in the future.

See also all FHIR implementation guides published by HL7 Finland.

### Two Modes for Scheduling

There are essentially two modes for scheduling in healthcare. See the section workflow types of the FHIR Appointment resource.

Argonaut and IHE seem to head more into the "Hospital Scheduling" mode with operations rather than direct REST calls.

In Finland the first one, the "Outlook Style", has been adopted more widely.

### Scope of this Implementation Guide

This implementation guide is not an API specification. Rather, it is a continuation of the profiling efforts of HL7 Finland. The aims are:

- to adapt the international FHIR specification to requirements specific to Finnish ecosystem
- to avoid divergence of systems and to lower cost of implementations by harmonizing what is common between Finnish implementations
- to educate all parties in the local ecosystem of existing implementations and design choices taken when implementing them.

Products and platforms like the ones listed below are expected to publish their own API specifications.

### Notable Implementations in Finland

#### Apotti

Apotti, an Epic installation in Finland has Epic's existing FHIR APIs for scheduling.

#### CGI

The OMNI360 by CGI Finland is one of the prominent Finnish electronic health record systems and has several native FHIR APIs. It offers a native FHIR API for scheduling.

CGI also offers scheduling services (Palveluohjain, previously also known as AVPH) as part of a separate platform, Sähköinen asiointipalvelu.

#### Esko Systems

The Esko APTJ by Esko Systems is also one of the prominent Finnish electronic health record systems. It uses several FHIR APIs internally and to communicate with third party systems and components.

#### Kanta

Kanta is the Finnish national central registry of health and social welfare information, with many services available for systems, providers, and citizens. Most of both the data and the APIs in Kanta system are based on HL7 V3 standards. However, there is ongoing work to open also FHIR based access to the information.

Kanta has specific FHIR APIs for storing and managing appointment documents into the Kanta registry. These documents contain information that can be viewed by the patient through the OmaKanta portal. The information in the central registry can be used by all providers to avoid overlapping bookings and to ensure fluent care paths for patients.

#### Omaolo

Omaolo is a collection of services developed by DigiFinland, a publicly funded company. Omaolo has a fully HL7 FHIR based personal health record platform as its core. It also uses FHIR scheduling to communicate with electronic health record systems and other third-party implementations.

### Other Guides and Links

Finnish national specifications for scheduling are in Sote-ajanvaraus - yleiskuvaus ja terveydenhuollon ajanvarausratkaisujen kansalliset vaatimukset.

Kanta specifications are in Kanta Potilastiedon arkiston FHIR R4.

See also the links to concept definitions on the terminology page.

Other scheduling related links and FHIR implementation guides include

- FHIR Appointment Scheduling Workflows
- Argonaut Scheduling
- Scheduling Building Blocks
- SMART Scheduling Links

### Must-Support Rules

This version of this implementation guide does not define any Must Support rules.

### Governance

The profiling work is performed in a project driven by HL7 Finland.

Source code, issues, and meeting notes can be found in GitHub.

We warmly welcome new participants to the project. You may even be compensated for your efforts.

The team involved in creating the first version of the specification includes

- Arto Huusko, CGI Oyj
- Janne Heikkinen, FlowUp Oy
- Jari Vuonos, Apotti Oy
- Joni Hirviniemi, Fujitsu
- Jyrki Soikkeli, Apotti Oy
- Markus Lind, Buddy Healthcare Oy
- Markus Suonpää, CGI Finland Oyj
- Mika Jylhä, Esko Systems Oy
- Mika Lentovaara, HUS
- Mika Tuomainen, Kela
- Mikael Rinnetmäki, Sensotrend Oy
- Tero Pekkola, Esko Systems Oy

Each published major version of this implementation guide goes through the ballot and voting processes of HL7 Finland and then represents the consensus view of the Finnish FHIR community.

### Collaboration

We want this implementation guide to be useful for you.

If you are implementing scheduling related functionalities with FHIR in a system or application that is meant to be used in Finland and are thinking of some implementation details, you are probably in the right place and this implementation guide should help you with those questions. If this implementation guide in any way fails to give you the answers you are looking for, we'd love to hear about it so we can make it better. Please do be in touch in one of the ways listed below.

#### Open an Issue in GitHub

The source code of this implementation guide is maintained in a publicly accessible repository in GitHub. Issues opened in that GitHub repo are very welcome. They help the team pick up any proposed changes or additions and to discuss them publicly.

#### Open a Pull Request in GitHub

Pull requests are even better. If you are able to suggest how exactly your proposal should be implemented in the specification, do it! It helps the team maintaining the implementation guide a great deal.

#### Participate in IG Development and Maintenance

Please also consider joining the development effort. This is the best way to affect the outcome of the profiling work. You may even be compensated for your efforts. Please be in touch with HL7 Finland to discuss options, if this even remotely interesting for you.

The best implementation guide is the one that reflects the views and the consensus of the entire FHIR community!

### Safety Considerations

This implementation guide defines data elements, resources, formats, and methods for exchanging healthcare data between different participants in the healthcare process. As such, clinical safety is a key concern. Additional guidance regarding safety for the specification’s many and various implementations is available at https://www.hl7.org/FHIR/safety.html.

Although the present specification does give users the opportunity to observe data protection and data security regulations, its use does not guarantee compliance with these regulations. Effective compliance must be ensured by appropriate measures during implementation projects and in daily operations. The corresponding implementation measures are explained in the standard. In addition, the present specification can only influence compliance with the security regulations in the technical area of standardization. It cannot influence organizational and contractual matters.

### License and Legal Terms

This document is licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

This implementation guide contains and references intellectual property owned by third parties ("Third Party IP"). Acceptance of these License Terms does not grant any rights with respect to Third Party IP. The licensee alone is responsible for identifying and obtaining any necessary licenses or authorizations to utilize Third Party IP in connection with the specification or otherwise.

HL7®, HEALTH LEVEL SEVEN®, FHIR® and the FHIR ® are trademarks owned by Health Level Seven International, registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

See also http://hl7.org/fhir/license.html.

#### Other Intellectual Property Statements

This publication includes IP covered under the following statements.

- Copyright HL7. Licensed under creative commons public domain
  Show Usage
  - appointmentReason: Appointment/605790 and Slot/123456789
- ISO Maintains the copyright on the country codes, and controls it's use carefully. For futher details see the ISO 3166 web page: https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html
  Show Usage
  - ISO 3166-1 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country code: AdditionalInformationURL, AjanvarauksenTila... Show 21 more, AppointmentMutability, CareGuaranteeDetails, CareplanIdentifier, ChildAppointment, CustomerJourney, FiAppointmentStatusCodeMap, FiSchedulingAppointment, FiSchedulingHealthcareService, FinnishScheduling, NotificationInfo, NotificationMedium, PatientInstructionURL, PractitionerGender, QueueNo, ReferralId, RequestedService, ResourceCalendarId, SelfServiceInfo, ServiceAdditionalInformation, TicketNo and TopicId
- This material derives from the HL7 Terminology (THO). THO is copyright ©1989+ Health Level Seven International and is made available under the CC0 designation. For more licensing information see: https://terminology.hl7.org/license.html
  Show Usage
  - Appointment cancellation reason: Appointment/appointment-status-extension-04
  - Service category: Appointment/example-appointment-4
  - Service type: Appointment/example-appointment-4
  - ParticipationType: Appointment/605790