IHI Precheck
Checks whether patient data resolves a valid IHI without creating the patient. Same search as Create Patient; the IHI number is never returned.
Overview
Checks whether patient data resolves a valid IHI before you create the patient. Send the same body as Create Patient. The precheck runs the same HI Service search as creation, creates nothing, and never returns the IHI number. Branch ondata.outcome. Two flags answer the two common questions:
create_would_succeed— would an identical create request succeed right now?ihi_check_passed— did the search resolve anACTIVE+VERIFIEDIHI (the prescribing bar)? Absent when no search ran.messageis a human-readable summary naming the identifier that matched. It is informational only.
Outcomes
Search Paths
Every identifier you supply is tried in priority order until one matches. An identifier that returns no record falls back to the next. Supply every identifier you hold.family_name, given_name, date_of_birth, sex.
searched_path is the identifier that matched (or the last one tried on no_match). failed_paths lists the identifiers tried before it. It is absent when the first identifier matched.
Request Example
Response Examples
IHI Found (200)
IHI Found After Fallback (200)
No Match (200)
Insufficient Data (200)
Patient Already Exists (200)
Validation Error (422)
Schema and identifier-format failures (Medicare checksum, IHI check digit, mobile, email, future date of birth) are reported together:Response Fields
Status Codes
Notes
- Requires the
create:patientscope. - The IHI number is never returned. Create the patient to have Parchment store it.
- Medicare without
medicare_irnas the only identifier reportsinsufficient_data.
Authorizations
Bearer authentication header of the form Bearer <token>, where <token> is your auth token.
Headers
Organization secret for authentication - provided by Parchment
Path Parameters
Organization ID
User ID
Body
Same body as Create Patient. Supply every identifier you hold.
Patient information to be created
Patient's given name
Patient's family name
Patient's date of birth in YYYY-MM-DD format
Patient's sex
M, F, N, I Partner's unique identifier for the patient
Your Parchment-assigned partner identifier (lowercase slug, e.g. 'tacklit'). Parchment registers this value during partner onboarding — requests with an unregistered value are rejected with a 422 validation error. Contact Parchment before go-live to have your identifier registered.
"demo"
DVA file number
16-digit Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI). If omitted, Parchment will attempt to fetch it from the HI Service.
Medicare card number
Medicare IRN
Patient's email address (optional)
Patient's Australian mobile number (optional). Must be a valid Australian mobile (04xxxxxxxx or 05xxxxxxxx), digits only. International format with +61 or 61 prefix is also accepted. Landlines are rejected. A mobile number can be used for IHI lookup against the Healthcare Identifiers Service.
Alias of australian_street_address. Send one, not both.
Medicare card expiry date
Concession or pension number
Entitlement number
DVA card color
gold, white, orange RACF identifier
Closing the Gap eligibility
Patient's indigenous status
aboriginal, torres_strait_islander, both, neither, not_stated Response
Precheck completed - read data.outcome for the result
Always true for a completed precheck
true
HTTP status code
200
Human-readable summary naming the matched identifier. Informational only.
"IHI found using mobile number (no record found using Medicare number)"
Always SUCCESS. Branch on data.outcome instead.
SUCCESS "SUCCESS"
Codified IHI precheck result. The IHI number itself is never returned.
ISO 8601 timestamp of the response
"2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
Unique identifier for request tracing
"req_1705312200000_abc123"

