Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider)

A Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) is an ACTIVITY GROUP.

A Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) is the time a PATIENT spends in the continuous care of one CONSULTANT using Hospital Site or Care Home bed(s) of one Health Care Provider or, in the case of shared care, in the care of two or more CONSULTANTS. Where care is provided by two or more CONSULTANTS within the same episode, one CONSULTANT will take overriding responsibility for the PATIENT and only one Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) is recorded. Additional CONSULTANTS participating in the care of PATIENTS are defined as Shared Care Consultants. A Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) includes those episodes for which a GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER is acting as a CONSULTANT.

A PATIENT going on Home Leave, or Mental Health Leave of Absence for 28 days or less, or has a current period of Mental Health Absence Without Leave of 28 days or less, does not interrupt the Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider).

A PATIENT may not have concurrent Consultant Episodes (Hospital Provider) but can have Consultant Out-Patient Episodes overlapping with a Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider). A Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) must not overlap with a Nursing Episode for the same PATIENT.

Any time spent as a LODGED PATIENT before being admitted to a WARD is included in the first Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider).

A CONSULTANT transfer occurs when the responsibility for a PATIENT transfers from one CONSULTANT (or GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER acting as a CONSULTANT) to another within a Hospital Provider Spell. In this case one Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) will end and another one begin.

A transfer of responsibility may occur from a CONSULTANT to the PATIENT's own GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER (not acting as CONSULTANT) with the PATIENT still in a WARD or Care Home to receive nursing care. In this case the Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) will end and a Nursing Episode will begin.

A transfer of responsibility from the PATIENT's own GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER to a CONSULTANT while the PATIENT is in a WARD or Care Home for nursing care will end the Nursing Episode and begin a Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider).

During the Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider) a number of Patient Procedures and PATIENT DIAGNOSES may be recorded.

If this is the first episode under a CONSULTANT in one of the psychiatric specialties within the Hospital Provider Spell, the appropriate PSYCHIATRIC PATIENT STATUS CODE  should be recorded.

There may be one or more Mental Health Delayed Discharge Periods  recorded during a Consultant Episode (Hospital Provider)  under a CONSULTANT  in one of the psychiatric specialties (see MAIN SPECIALTY CODE (MENTAL HEALTH).