Version: 1.0.2 | Published: 14 Aug 2026 | Updated: 40 days ago
Summary
Type:
Information standards
Topics:
- Electronic Health Record
- Interoperability
Care Settings:
- Ambulance (Urgent and Emergency Care)
- Care home
- Community health
- Dentistry
- GP / Primary care
- Home
- Hospital
- Maternity
- Mental health
- Military
- Pharmacy
- Prison
- School
- Social care
- Transport / Infrastructure
- Urgent and Emergency Care
- Walk in centre
Alternate Name:
National Standard for a Patient Summary
Publication Date:
01 June 2026
Contact Point
Contact Point:
Documentation
Description:
The National Standard for a Patient Summary sets out the core data elements required for an electronic patient summary — a point-in-time summary of a patient's critical health information used to support clinical decision-making, whether planned or unplanned, across organisational and national boundaries. A patient summary is electronically generated from stored data, which may originate from various sources such as a hospital discharge report or general practitioner notes; it is not expected that health practitioners will collect the data manually.
The standard is structured across three information groups — Patient Information, Clinical Information, and Document Information — comprising 19 sections of data elements. Each section defines its data elements together with descriptions, conformance (mandatory, required or optional), cardinality, value sets and guidance for use. Sections include patient details, health practitioner information, nominated contact person, alerts and adverse events, allergies and intolerances, patient provided data, social context, advance healthcare directive, travel history, pregnancy information, immunisation information, functional status, observation and investigation results, health conditions, procedures and treatments, medication information, medical devices/implants, care plan, and document information.
This standard is a revision of the National Standard for a Clinical Summary (Patient Summary) (2019), which it will replace once approved. It has been developed to align with EU developments — in particular the information requirements published by the Xt-EHR Joint Action project — and to support Ireland's compliance with the European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation, under which patient summaries are one of the priority categories of electronic health data to be exchangeable within and across borders. This initial draft version is for discussion at focus group meetings in July 2026 and is not for wider circulation.
Review & Status
Contributor:
HIQA Health Information and Standards Directorate
Sponsor:
Health Information and Quality Authority
Scope:
Applies to electronic patient summaries for patients of any age. Intended for
healthcare professionals, independent of any technical platform, covering
requirements common across clinical specialties. Does not dictate
implementation.
Mandated:
No
Status:
draft in progress
How to use this standard
How to Use This Standard Introduction:
This standard defines the core data elements for an electronic patient summary,
organised into three information groups (Patient Information, Clinical
Information and Document Information) across 19 sections. Each data element
specifies its conformance (mandatory, required or optional), cardinality, value
set and guidance for use. To apply the standard, populate the patient summary
from existing stored data rather than collecting it manually, include the
mandatory and required elements relevant to each patient, and follow the
guidance provided for each section.
Origin
Name:
Data Catalogue