OperationOutcome

A collection of error, warning, or information messages that result from a system action.

Schema

Elements

Name	Required	Type	Description
issue	✓	OperationOutcomeIssue[]	A single issue associated with the action Details An error, warning, or information message that results from a system action.
id		string	Unique id for inter-element referencing Details Unique id for the element within a resource (for internal references). This may be any string value that does not contain spaces.
extension		Extension[]	Additional content defined by implementations Details May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.
modifierExtension		Extension[]	Extensions that cannot be ignored even if unrecognized Details May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the element and that modifies the understanding of the element in which it is contained and/or the understanding of the containing element's descendants. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions. Modifier extensions SHALL NOT change the meaning of any elements on Resource or DomainResource (including cannot change the meaning of modifierExtension itself). There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.
severity	✓	code	fatal | error | warning | information Details Indicates whether the issue indicates a variation from successful processing. This is labeled as "Is Modifier" because applications should not confuse hints and warnings with errors.
code	✓	code	Error or warning code Details Describes the type of the issue. The system that creates an OperationOutcome SHALL choose the most applicable code from the IssueType value set, and may additional provide its own code for the error in the details element.
details		CodeableConcept	Additional details about the error Details Additional details about the error. This may be a text description of the error or a system code that identifies the error. A human readable description of the error issue SHOULD be placed in details.text.
diagnostics		string	Additional diagnostic information about the issue Details Additional diagnostic information about the issue. This may be a description of how a value is erroneous, a stack dump to help trace the issue or other troubleshooting information.
location		string[]	Deprecated: Path of element(s) related to issue Details This element is deprecated because it is XML specific. It is replaced by issue.expression, which is format independent, and simpler to parse. For resource issues, this will be a simple XPath limited to element names, repetition indicators and the default child accessor that identifies one of the elements in the resource that caused this issue to be raised. For HTTP errors, will be "http." + the parameter name. The root of the XPath is the resource or bundle that generated OperationOutcome. Each XPath SHALL resolve to a single node. This element is deprecated, and is being replaced by expression.
expression		string[]	FHIRPath of element(s) related to issue Details A [simple subset of FHIRPath](fhirpath.html#simple) limited to element names, repetition indicators and the default child accessor that identifies one of the elements in the resource that caused this issue to be raised. The root of the FHIRPath is the resource or bundle that generated OperationOutcome. Each FHIRPath SHALL resolve to a single node.

Search Parameters

None

Inherited Elements

Name	Required	Type	Description
id		string	Logical id of this artifact Details The logical id of the resource, as used in the URL for the resource. Once assigned, this value never changes. The only time that a resource does not have an id is when it is being submitted to the server using a create operation.
meta		Meta	Metadata about the resource Details The metadata about the resource. This is content that is maintained by the infrastructure. Changes to the content might not always be associated with version changes to the resource.
implicitRules		uri	A set of rules under which this content was created Details A reference to a set of rules that were followed when the resource was constructed, and which must be understood when processing the content. Often, this is a reference to an implementation guide that defines the special rules along with other profiles etc. Asserting this rule set restricts the content to be only understood by a limited set of trading partners. This inherently limits the usefulness of the data in the long term. However, the existing health eco-system is highly fractured, and not yet ready to define, collect, and exchange data in a generally computable sense. Wherever possible, implementers and/or specification writers should avoid using this element. Often, when used, the URL is a reference to an implementation guide that defines these special rules as part of it's narrative along with other profiles, value sets, etc.
language		code	Language of the resource content Details The base language in which the resource is written. Language is provided to support indexing and accessibility (typically, services such as text to speech use the language tag). The html language tag in the narrative applies to the narrative. The language tag on the resource may be used to specify the language of other presentations generated from the data in the resource. Not all the content has to be in the base language. The Resource.language should not be assumed to apply to the narrative automatically. If a language is specified, it should it also be specified on the div element in the html (see rules in HTML5 for information about the relationship between xml:lang and the html lang attribute).
text		Narrative	Text summary of the resource, for human interpretation Details A human-readable narrative that contains a summary of the resource and can be used to represent the content of the resource to a human. The narrative need not encode all the structured data, but is required to contain sufficient detail to make it "clinically safe" for a human to just read the narrative. Resource definitions may define what content should be represented in the narrative to ensure clinical safety. Contained resources do not have narrative. Resources that are not contained SHOULD have a narrative. In some cases, a resource may only have text with little or no additional discrete data (as long as all minOccurs=1 elements are satisfied). This may be necessary for data from legacy systems where information is captured as a "text blob" or where text is additionally entered raw or narrated and encoded information is added later.
contained		Resource[]	Contained, inline Resources Details These resources do not have an independent existence apart from the resource that contains them - they cannot be identified independently, and nor can they have their own independent transaction scope. This should never be done when the content can be identified properly, as once identification is lost, it is extremely difficult (and context dependent) to restore it again. Contained resources may have profiles and tags In their meta elements, but SHALL NOT have security labels.
extension		Extension[]	Additional content defined by implementations Details May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer can define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.
modifierExtension		Extension[]	Extensions that cannot be ignored Details May be used to represent additional information that is not part of the basic definition of the resource and that modifies the understanding of the element that contains it and/or the understanding of the containing element's descendants. Usually modifier elements provide negation or qualification. To make the use of extensions safe and manageable, there is a strict set of governance applied to the definition and use of extensions. Though any implementer is allowed to define an extension, there is a set of requirements that SHALL be met as part of the definition of the extension. Applications processing a resource are required to check for modifier extensions. Modifier extensions SHALL NOT change the meaning of any elements on Resource or DomainResource (including cannot change the meaning of modifierExtension itself). There can be no stigma associated with the use of extensions by any application, project, or standard - regardless of the institution or jurisdiction that uses or defines the extensions. The use of extensions is what allows the FHIR specification to retain a core level of simplicity for everyone.

Usage

Operation outcomes are sets of error, warning and information messages that provide detailed information about the outcome of an attempted system operation. They are provided as a direct system response, or component of one, and provide information about the outcome of the operation.

The OperationOutcome resource is used in the following circumstances:

• When a RESTful interaction or operation fails
• As the response on a validation operation to provide information about the outcome
• As part of a message response, usually when the message has not been processed correctly
• As the response to a batch/transaction, when requested
• As part of a search's Bundle response containing information about the search

Relationships

This resource is not used for reporting clinical or workflow issues associated with a proposed or ongoing action; these would be handled using DetectedIssue or other resources. OperationOutcome is not designed to be persisted or referenced from other parts of the workflow.

It is possible to have both OperationOutcome and DetectedIssue together, where the OperationOutcome might indicate that a requested action was rejected due to a clinical issue and the DetectedIssue provides the details of the issue.

Referenced By

• GuidanceResponse
• MessageHeader