Address Implementation Guide
Use case
This specification describes a single use case.
The address element is used to capture the patients demographic information.
Address
| Type | name | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Type | address | address | Parent element for an address. Additional child elements are used to form the full address. |
Element Usage
Where address and any of the child elements are used, an addressing standard must be followed to promote data quality, enable consistency between applications and increase patient safety.
address element is able to support both structured and unstructured address formats.
Structured Address
A structured address consists of:
| Address Component | address child element | length | Comments |
| Line 1 | line | 50 | PAF allows building name of up to 50 characters therefore line must support this max |
| Line 2 | line | 50 | As above |
| Line 3 | line | 50 | As above |
| Town | city | 30 | Required as part of all UK addresses |
| County | district | 18 | The longest UK county name is 18 chars |
| Country | country | 3 | Recommend a ISO 3166 3 letter code |
| Postcode | postalCode | PAF supports 7. Some clinical systems use space therefore 8 is permitted |
Examples of Correct Usage
| Usage | Element | examples | Comments |
 |
line |
Floor 9 | Identify location in a building |
|
line |
Durham House | Building name in title case |
|
city |
Washington | Town in title case |
|
postalcode |
NE38 7SF | Post code, uppercase with space |
Examples of Incorrect Usage
| Usage | Element | examples | Comments |
 |
line |
Floor 9, Durham House | Partially unstructured. Should split this onto different lines |
|
city |
Missing the town. This should be present. | |
|
postalcode |
ne387sf | Not in uppercase and has no spacing between outward code and inward code |
Unstructured Address
It is not recommended to use an unstructured address due to the risk to data quality. This is due to unstructured addresses not being validated because an unstructured address does not have its address components segregated, for example, the town.
Post Code
Where the postalCode element is used, it must conform to the following conventions:
Post code format MUST be one of:
- AN NAA
- ANN NAA
- AAN NAA
- AANN NAA
- ANA NAA
- AANA NAA
where A is an alphabetic character and N is a numeric character.
As part of this convention the following rules apply:
- The letters Q, V and X are not used in the fist position
- The letters I, J and Z are not used in the second position.
- The only letters to appear in the third position are A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,J,K,S,T,U and W.
- The second half of the post code is always consistent numeric, alpha, alpha format and the letters C, I,K,M,O and V are never used.
- Post code should be in block capitals and a space MUST be between the two parts of the code.
Country Code
It is recommended to implement the ISO 3166 country codes into a structured address.
A full list of codes can be found here ISO 3166
When used with a UK address the code MUST be GBR.
On the wire XML example
<address>
<use value="home"/>
<line value="21"/>
<line value="Grove Street"/>
<city value="Overtown"/>
<district value="Leeds"/>
<postalCode value="LS21 1PF"/>
</address>
On the wire example in JSON
{
"address": {
"use": { "-value": "home" },
"line": { "-value": "21" },
"line": { "-value": "Grove Street" },
"city": { "-value": "Overtown" },
"district": { "-value": "Leeds" },
"postalCode": { "-value": "LS21 1PF" }
}
}
Error Handling
The provider system SHALL return an error if:
- Post code does not match PAF file