International Classification of Primary Care

The International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC) is a classification method for primary care encounters. The ICPC-3 strives to be a person centered classification for Primary Care, building on the foundations of the ICPC-2. It includes references to existing international standards such as ICD-10, ICD-11, ICF as well as SNOMED CT clinical terminology. It provides a framework for documenting and organizing clinical data from primary care patient contacts.

The ICPC-3 includes codes for the four key elements of healthcare encounters:

• the reason for the encounter (RFE);
• the diagnosis and/or health problem;
• functioning (i.e. information about activities/participation, physiological functions and about personal and environmental factors related to the health problem);
• processes of care.