IE (Ireland) Core Implementation Guide
0.3.0 - draft Ireland flag

IE (Ireland) Core Implementation Guide - Local Development build (v0.3.0) built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) Build Tools. See the Directory of published versions

General Requirements

This page defines the general conformance requirements and expectations for the IE Core Implementation Guide.

Conformance Verbs

The conformance verbs - SHALL, SHOULD, MAY - used in this guide are defined in FHIR Conformance Rules.

Must Support

IE Core uses the concept of Must Support as defined on the Must Support page. In the context of IE Core, Must Support on any element SHALL be interpreted as follows:

  • IE Core Responders SHALL be capable of populating all data elements as part of the query results as specified by the IE Core Server Capability Statement.
  • IE Core Requestors SHALL be capable of processing resource instances containing the data elements without generating an error or causing the application to fail.

Conformance Obligations (XT-EHR Obligations Framework)

In addition to the narrative Must Support rules above, IE Core profiles that derive from XT-EHR-aligned HL7 Europe artifacts (Patient Summary, Hospital Discharge Report, Laboratory Report) SHOULD be read together with the corresponding EU Base and EU Laboratory CapabilityStatements. Those CapabilityStatements declare actor-specific SHALL/SHOULD obligations. These obligations use the HL7 FHIR Obligations extension (http://hl7.org/fhir/tools/StructureDefinition/obligation). This machine-readable obligations approach is the pattern adopted by the XT-EHR Obligations Framework. It has also been adopted by 2026-era national Core IGs (e.g. US Core, AU Core) as the successor to purely narrative must-support tables. It:

  • Allows automated conformance testing tools (e.g. Touchstone, Inferno, XT-EHR test suites) to verify actor obligations directly from the CapabilityStatement rather than free-text guidance
  • Distinguishes obligations by actor (e.g. send-data, receive-data) rather than a single blanket Must Support rule
  • Is tracked as a formal verification item in the Future of IE Core roadmap ("XT-EHR Obligations compliance") pending full mapping of every IE Core profile against the XT-EHR 1.0.0 Obligations Framework

Missing Data

If the source system does not have data for a Must Support element:

  1. If the element is not required (minimum cardinality = 0), the element may be omitted from the resource.
  2. If the element is required (minimum cardinality > 0), the element SHALL be present with either:

FHIR RESTful API Requirements

Supported Formats

IE Core Servers SHALL support JSON (application/fhir+json) and SHOULD support XML (application/fhir+xml).

Authentication and Authorization

IE Core implementations SHOULD support SMART on FHIR for authentication and authorization.

IE Core Servers SHALL support the search parameters defined in each profile's Quick Start section and the IE Core Server CapabilityStatement.

Servers SHALL support the following search result parameters:

  • _include
  • _revinclude
  • _count

Paging

IE Core Servers SHOULD support paging for search results.

Irish Healthcare Identifiers

The identifiers below are those named in the HIQA draft national standards (September 2026), plus the Health Services Provider Identifier established by the Health Identifiers Act 2014. Identifiers without an authoritative source were removed (ADR-006). The system URIs are placeholders under this IG's canonical until the issuing bodies publish FHIR identifier systems (OI-003).

Identifier HIQA element Where in IE Core Issuing authority
IHI (Individual Health Identifier) EP/PS 1.3.1 (Required) Patient.identifier:IHI HSE
PPSN (Personal Public Service Number) EP/PS 1.3.2 (Required) Patient.identifier:PPSN, no MustSupport (legal basis Requires Clarification, OI-008) Department of Social Protection
PCRS scheme numbers (medical card, GP visit card, DPS, LTI, Health (Amendment) Act card) EP/PS 1.3.3 "other identifier" Patient.identifier with type from IECorePCRSSchemeType; no format enforced HSE PCRS
Medical Council (IMC) registration number EP/PS 2.6.2 Practitioner.identifier:IMC Medical Council
PSI registration number (pharmacists) EP/PS 2.6.2 Practitioner.identifier:PSI (up to 8 digits) Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland
NMBI registration number (nurse and midwife prescribers) EP/PS 2.6.2 Practitioner.identifier:NMBI Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland
Dental Council registration number EP (prescriber definition) Practitioner.identifier:DentalCouncil Dental Council
PSI Retail Pharmacy Business number EP/PS 2.8 Organization.identifier:PSIRPB Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland
GMS Panel ID EP/PS 2.12 Organization.identifier:GMSPanel HSE PCRS
HSP-I: Health Services Provider Identifier (HSPI) of an individual provider not a HIQA element; Health Identifiers Act 2014 s.13–14 Practitioner.identifier:HSPI (optional, no format enforced) Minister for Health (delegable to the HSE, s.26)
HSP-O: Health Services Provider Identifier (HSPI) of an organisation not a HIQA element; Health Identifiers Act 2014 s.13–14 Organization.identifier:HSPO (optional, no format enforced) Minister for Health (delegable to the HSE, s.26)
GLN (Global Location Number) EP/PS 2.11 Location.identifier:GLN (http://www.gs1.org/gln, check digit enforced) GS1
NePS electronic prescription identifier EP 3.1 NamingSystem only; used on the prescription in IE Medication Events HSE (NePS)
Eircode EP/PS 1.2.1 address.postalCode Eircode

IHI format

HIQA EP/PS 1.3.1 describes the IHI as "a unique 18 or 10-digit number". IE Core accepts either form (invariant ie-pat-1). How the two forms relate, and whether either has a check digit, is not stated by HIQA and is Requires Clarification (OI-002), so IE Core enforces no check digit.

Health Services Provider Identifier (HSP-I, HSP-O)

The Health Identifiers Act 2014 assigns "a unique number" (alphanumeric, s.2(1)) to each health services provider (s.13) and keeps it in the National Register of Health Services Provider Identifiers (s.14). The register has Parts for individual providers (A health practitioners, C relevant employees, D individual relevant agents) and for organisations (B relevant bodies, E corporate relevant agents); HIQA's health identifiers FAQ calls it the HSPI. IE Core carries the individual form as HSP-I on Practitioner and the organisation form as HSP-O on Organization. The Act sets no format, so none is enforced. Whether the two forms share one number range, and the identifier system URI, are Requires Clarification (OI-030, OI-003). The HPI identifier removed by ADR-006 had no source and is not revived: HSP-I and HSP-O use new system URIs.

PCRS scheme numbers

HIQA does not define formats for PCRS scheme numbers, so IE Core enforces none (ADR-006).