4. Identifier management

PMHC MDS keys are case sensitive and must have between 2-50 valid unicode characters. Keys must start with A-Za-z0-9 (POSIX :alnum:).

Where data is being exported from client systems, these keys can be auto generated, providing that a key does not change once it is assigned.

Keys must be generated by the organisation to be unique at the Provider Organisation level and must persist across time. Creation of keys in this way allows records to be merged (where duplicate keys of the same record type have been identified) without having to re-allocate keys since they can never clash.

A recommended approach for the creation of keys is to compute random UUIDs.

4.1. Managing Provider Organisation Keys

Provider Organisations will be created and managed by Primary Health Networks (PHNs) via upload or data entry. Each PHN must either create their own Provider Organisations before any data can be uploaded, or if the PHN is uploading the data, the Provider Organisation must be included in the upload.

Each Provider Organisation will need to be assigned a unique key. It is the responsibility of the PHN to assign and manage these keys.

4.2. Managing Client Keys

Client records will be created and managed by Provider Organisations via the upload and/or data entry interface. Each Client record needs to be assigned a unique key in order to facilitate adding/updating/deleting each item when uploading data. Once assigned, this key cannot change.

The Client Key will be managed by the Provider Organisation, however, the PHN may decide to play a role in coordinating assignment and management of these client keys.

Initially the Department wanted these keys to be unique across the PHN in order to ensure that there is a single key for a client within the PHN, and will continue to investigate options for the PMHC MDS implementation of a Master Client Index during Stage Two of development.

4.3. Managing all other entity keys

The following entity keys will be created and managed by Provider Organisations:

• Practitioner Key,

• Intake Key,

• Episode Key,

• Service Contact Key,

• Service Contact Practitioner Key,

• Collection Occasion Key,

• Measure Key.

The PMHC MDS specification requires each of these keys to be unique and stable at the Provider Organisation level.

Each record needs to be assigned a unique key in order to facilitate adding/updating/deleting each item when uploading/entering data. These keys will be created and managed by the Provider Organisation.

If you still have questions after reading this information, please visit the Department’s responses to Questions about Unique Identifiers and ‘Keys’