National Health Index FHIR API

Brief description

The National Health Index (NHI) is an index that stores identity information — for example, a person’s name, address, gender and date of birth — and associates this information with a unique identifier, known as an ‘NHI number’.

Every person who uses health and disability services in New Zealand is assigned an NHI number. The purpose of the NHI is to ensure they are accurately identified and linked with the correct health records. Clinical information is not recorded.

Overview

This is a FHIR API made up of two resources:

NHIPatient, derived from the HL7 FHIR Patient resource.
NHIAddress, derived from HL7 FHIR Address data type.

NHI numbers have one of 2 formats:

AAANNNC (3 alpha, 3 numeric and one numeric check digit) – in current circulation
AAANNAX (3 alpha, 2 numeric, 1 alpha and one alpha check digit). This format will be first issued circa 2025.

Accessible data

The NHI holds the following information:

name (including alternative names such as maiden names)
NHI number
address
date of birth
gender
New Zealand citizenship status
place of birth
ethnicity
date of death.

The enrolled general practitioner details may include:

enrolment ID
period of enrolment
HPI practitioner
HPI organisation
HPI facility.

The contact details that may be returned include:

email address
home phone number
mobile phone number.

Who can use this API

Health providers listed in Schedule 2 of the Health Information Privacy Code may access the information in the NHI.

This includes:

Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)
Department of Corrections Health Services
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Health Practitioners
Hospitals
Independent practitioner associations
MedicAlert Foundation — New Zealand Incorporated
Manatū Hauora — Ministry of Health
New Zealand Blood and Organ Service
New Zealand Defence Force Health Services
Pharmaceutical Management Agency of New Zealand
Primary health organisations (PHOs)
Whaikaha, Ministry of Disabled People
Any health agency that has a contract or is funded by the above list to.

Health New Zealand assigns appropriate permissions and monitors and audits the actions of health provider use of the NHI.

Use cases

Suggestions on how to implement the NHI FHIR API.

A new patient presents for healthcare.
A returning patient presents for healthcare.
A notification is received that patient details have changed.
A provider notices a discrepancy between local and NHI record, but does not have update access.
A user needs to validate an NHI number.
Look up the patient’s enrolled general practice.
Look up patient’s contact details.

Multi API use cases

National Health Index and Health Provider Index.
Lookup EDI for an enrolled patient’s general practice.

Onboarding and implementation

To begin the onboarding process for this API, please visit the Consumer onboarding page.

For more information on integrating, please review the Implementation guide.

Business functions and risk scores

To view what these risk scores mean, click here.

Name	Function	Description	Clinical risk score	Privacy risk score	Security risk score	Identity risk score
GET Patient	Get Patient using an NHI number	Using a known NHI number, a GET Request is sent to the NHI, the request is validated and returns the patient data associated with the NHI number in the request. Returned results include a range of demographic data required to confirm identity — for example, name, gender, ethnicity, date and place of birth, address and New Zealand citizenship status. If the requester has the appropriate permissions the patient’s enrolled general practice and contact details, mobile, home phone and email are also included.	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	Level 3
GET Patient - Enrolled GP	Get Patient using an NHI number and include the patient’s enrolled GP in the response	The patient’s enrolled GP information is returned in the patient resource The source for this is the National Enrolment Service (NES)	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	Level 3
GET Patient - Contact details	Get Patient using an NHI number and include the patient’s contact details in the response	The patient’s contact details are returned in the patient resource. The source for this is the National Enrolment Service Patient Preferences.	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	Level 3
SEARCH Patient	Search Patient using name, birthdate and other demographics	A SEARCH Request is used when the NHI number is not known. The request is validated and data of patients matching the search criteria is returned in order of relevance. It returns only the core NHI fields (No enrolled GP or contact details even if the user has the correct permissions. Search parameters include, name, date of birth, gender, place of birth and address.	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	Level 3
MAINTAIN Patient	Update Patient records	Provided on a limited basis to primary and secondary healthcare providers, and health system data quality teams. Attribute dependent. Allows access to the following operations: Update Name (Add, replace, inactivate, set-preferred) Update the Address(Set-address, set-unvalidated-address, remove postal address). Update Identity(Gender / ethnicity) Update Birth(Birthdate / place) Update Eligibility(NZ Citizenship status)	HIGH	EXTREME	HIGH	Level 3
CREATE Patient	Create Patient records	Provided on a limited basis to primary and secondary healthcare providers.	EXTREME	EXTREME	HIGH	Level 3
VALIDATE Patient	Validate Patient using an NHI number and patient demographics	A VALIDATE request is used when the NHI number and demographic details are known, but the requestor is not authorised to retrieve NHI details or they only need a match / no-match response. Validate parameters include NHI number, name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, and address.	HIGH	HIGH	HIGH	Level 3

API types

FHIR API

All FHIR API endpoints adhere to Fast Healthcare Interoperable Resources (FHIR) interoperability standards and follow REST protocols.

Service levels

Target 99.99 percent service availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Restrictions

Geo restriction

Geo restriction rules prevent access from clients with IPs located in countries other than those listed below.

New Zealand
Australia
Canada
Cook Islands

Plan	Rate	Burst	Quota
Bronze	1 request per second	5	10,000 requests per day
Silver	5 requests per second	25	250,000 requests per day
Gold	10 requests per second	50	500,000 requests per day

All test accounts will be assigned to the bronze usage plan. Production accounts will be assigned to the silver usage plan. If a vendor wishes to be assigned to a higher plan, they should contact us via the support form. Please request a change to the usage plan and make sure you include the ClientID at minimum (AppId and OrgId also recommended).

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