The time a PATIENT spends in the continuous care of one or more nurses from one COMMUNITY NURSE STAFF GROUP within a NURSING IN THE COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

An episode of care is initiated by a referral. If the source of referral is from a member of the community health staff, the recipient of the referral must belong to another COMMUNITY NURSE STAFF GROUP for the referral to initiate another COMMUNITY EPISODE.

Where a previous episode of care for the same individual did not end with a positive discharge from care, a new episode of care should be counted if more than 6 months have elapsed since the last contact (or since the last failed appointment where no further appointment was made), in the absence of a planned review date.

This class is also known by these names:

Context	Alias
plural	COMMUNITY EPISODES