Health Connect Australia Provider Directory FHIR Implementation Guide, published by Australian Digital Health Agency. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 26.0.0 built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/AuDigitalHealth/HCPD-Snapshot-26.0.0-SPARKED-Testing-20260708/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

Extension: Suppression Indicator for Visibility

Official URL: http://digitalhealth.gov.au/fhir/cc/StructureDefinition/suppressed Version: 26.0.0
Active as of 2026-07-03 Computable Name: Suppressed

Copyright/Legal: This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Indicates whether the parent resource should be hidden from display in the Provider Directory. Contains coded information about the actor who initiated the suppression and optional control flags.

This extension addresses the business requirement to control visibility of provider directory entries, enabling management of which practitioner roles, organizations, healthcare services, locations, or endpoints should be hidden from public directory searches while maintaining data in the system.

Context of Use

Usage notes

This extension is used to convey whether the parent resource should be hidden from display in the Provider Directory. It carries coded information about the actor who initiated the suppression.

Datatype and context

The Suppressed extension is a complex extension that contains information about suppression behavior. It includes a required suppressedBy sub-extension (CodeableConcept) that indicates who initiated the suppression requestThe coded values are drawn from the Responsible Party Type CodeSystem.

This extension is profiled on the following HCPD resources: Organization, Practitioner, PractitionerRole, HealthcareService, Location, and Endpoint.

  • Being an optional cardinality, when absent the resource is visible in Provider Directory listings
  • When present, it indicates the resource is suppressed and identifies who initiated the suppression

Suppression scenarios

This extension enables several suppression patterns:

  1. Practitioner self-suppression:
    • Practitioner with Suppressed extension (practitioner-initiated) automatically hides themselves and cascades to suppress all their roles
  2. Organization suppression:
    • Organization with Suppressed extension (organisation-initiated) triggers cascade suppression to all child resources
  3. PractitionerRole specific suppression:
    • PractitionerRole with Suppressed extension is hidden without affecting the Practitioner profile
    • Can be initiated by either practitioner-initiated or organisation-initiated codes

Processing and client obligations

  • The default state of this extension, being optional, is that it is not present on a profile and that resource is visible.
  • When present, the Suppressed extension indicates the resource should be suppressed from Provider Directory listings.
  • Suppressed resources are included in API responses when querying for inactive or all resources; they will be returned alongside active resources rather than being excluded at the API level.
  • Implementers SHALL check each returned resource for the presence of the Suppressed extension and SHALL NOT present those resources to end users of the Health Connect Provider Directory.

Hierarchical suppression model

The HCPD Provider Directory operates on a hierarchical model where certain resources are considered children of others. This hierarchy determines the cascading behavior of suppression and which initiator codes are permitted on each resource type.

Suppression cascade:

  • Organization (parent) → HealthcareService, Location, PractitionerRole, Endpoint (children)
    • When the Suppressed extension is present on an Organization, suppression automatically cascades to its child HealthcareService, Location, PractitionerRole, and Endpoint resources

The coded values in Suppressed indicate who has the authority to suppress a resource, with some resources having competing authorities due to their position in the hierarchy.

Resource Type organisation-initiated practitioner-initiated
Organization ✓ ✗
HealthcareService ✓ ✗
Location ✓ ✗
Endpoint ✓ ✗
PractitionerRole ✓ ✓
Practitioner ✗ ✓

Usage info

Usages:

You can also check for usages in the FHIR IG Statistics

Formal Views of Extension Content

Description of Profiles, Differentials, Snapshots, and how the XML and JSON presentations work.

This structure is derived from Extension

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraints    Filter: Filtersdoco
.. Extension 0..1 Extension(4.0.1) Hide Resource in Directory
... extension 1..* Extension Extension
... Slices for extension Content/Rules for all slices
.... extension:suppressedBy S 1..1 Extension Who initiated the suppression
..... extension 0..0 Extension
..... url 1..1 uri "suppressedBy"
..... value[x] S 1..1 CodeableConcept Value of extension
...... coding 1..2 Coding Code defined by a terminology system
Binding: ResponsiblePartyType_VS (26.0.0) (required)
... url 1..1 uri "http://digitalhealth.gov.au/fhir/cc/StructureDefinition/suppressed"

doco Documentation for this format
NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraints    Filter: Filtersdoco
.. Extension 0..1 Extension(4.0.1) Hide Resource in Directory
Constraints: ext-1
... id 0..1 string Unique id for inter-element referencing
... Slices for extension 1..* Extension Extension
Slice: Unordered, Open by value:url
Constraints: ext-1
.... extension:suppressedBy S 1..1 Extension Who initiated the suppression
Constraints: ext-1
..... id 0..1 string Unique id for inter-element referencing
..... extension 0..0 Extension
Slice: Unordered, Open by value:url
Constraints: ext-1
..... url 1..1 uri "suppressedBy"
..... value[x] S 1..1 CodeableConcept Value of extension
...... id 0..1 string Unique id for inter-element referencing
...... extension 0..* Extension Additional content defined by implementations
Slice: Unordered, Open by value:url
Constraints: ext-1
...... coding Σ 1..2 Coding Code defined by a terminology system
Binding: ResponsiblePartyType_VS (26.0.0) (required)
...... text Σ 0..1 string Plain text representation of the concept
... url 1..1 uri "http://digitalhealth.gov.au/fhir/cc/StructureDefinition/suppressed"

doco Documentation for this format

This structure is derived from Extension

Summary

Complex Extension: Indicates whether the parent resource should be hidden from display in the Provider Directory. Contains coded information about the actor who initiated the suppression and optional control flags.

  • suppressedBy: CodeableConcept: Identifies the actor who initiated the suppression request (e.g., practitioner, organisation).

Differential View

This structure is derived from Extension

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraints    Filter: Filtersdoco
.. Extension 0..1 Extension(4.0.1) Hide Resource in Directory
... extension 1..* Extension Extension
... Slices for extension Content/Rules for all slices
.... extension:suppressedBy S 1..1 Extension Who initiated the suppression
..... extension 0..0 Extension
..... url 1..1 uri "suppressedBy"
..... value[x] S 1..1 CodeableConcept Value of extension
...... coding 1..2 Coding Code defined by a terminology system
Binding: ResponsiblePartyType_VS (26.0.0) (required)
... url 1..1 uri "http://digitalhealth.gov.au/fhir/cc/StructureDefinition/suppressed"

doco Documentation for this format

Snapshot View

NameFlagsCard.TypeDescription & Constraints    Filter: Filtersdoco
.. Extension 0..1 Extension(4.0.1) Hide Resource in Directory
Constraints: ext-1
... id 0..1 string Unique id for inter-element referencing
... Slices for extension 1..* Extension Extension
Slice: Unordered, Open by value:url
Constraints: ext-1
.... extension:suppressedBy S 1..1 Extension Who initiated the suppression
Constraints: ext-1
..... id 0..1 string Unique id for inter-element referencing
..... extension 0..0 Extension
Slice: Unordered, Open by value:url
Constraints: ext-1
..... url 1..1 uri "suppressedBy"
..... value[x] S 1..1 CodeableConcept Value of extension
...... id 0..1 string Unique id for inter-element referencing
...... extension 0..* Extension Additional content defined by implementations
Slice: Unordered, Open by value:url
Constraints: ext-1
...... coding Σ 1..2 Coding Code defined by a terminology system
Binding: ResponsiblePartyType_VS (26.0.0) (required)
...... text Σ 0..1 string Plain text representation of the concept
... url 1..1 uri "http://digitalhealth.gov.au/fhir/cc/StructureDefinition/suppressed"

doco Documentation for this format

This structure is derived from Extension

Summary

Complex Extension: Indicates whether the parent resource should be hidden from display in the Provider Directory. Contains coded information about the actor who initiated the suppression and optional control flags.

  • suppressedBy: CodeableConcept: Identifies the actor who initiated the suppression request (e.g., practitioner, organisation).

 

Other representations of profile: CSV, Excel, Schematron

Terminology Bindings

Path Status Usage ValueSet Version Source
Extension.extension:suppressedBy.​value[x].coding Base required Responsible Party Type 📍26.0.0 This IG

Constraints

Id Grade Path(s) Description Expression
ele-1 error Extension, Extension.extension, Extension.extension:suppressedBy, Extension.extension:suppressedBy.value[x], Extension.extension:suppressedBy.value[x].extension, Extension.extension:suppressedBy.value[x].coding, Extension.extension:suppressedBy.value[x].text All FHIR elements must have a @value or children hasValue() or (children().count() > id.count())
ext-1 error Extension, Extension.extension, Extension.extension:suppressedBy, Extension.extension:suppressedBy.value[x].extension Must have either extensions or value[x], not both extension.exists() != value.exists()