HL7 SIU_S15 (Appointment Cancellation) | Integration Soup HL7 Reference Guide

HL7 SIU_S15 Appointment Cancellation

The appointment was valid, but it will not happen.

HL7 message structure SIU_S12 groups and segments from HL7 v2.5.1 Hide structure

These are the generated groups and segments for the version selected at the top of the page. The article explains the workflow, and this panel follows the chosen HL7 version.

Message Structure

Segment	Name	Required	Repeatable
MSH	Message Header	Yes	No
SCH	Scheduling Activity Information	Yes	No
TQ1	Timing/Quantity	No	Yes
NTE	Notes and Comments	No	Yes
SIU_S12.PATIENT	Patient group	No	Yes
PID	Patient Identification	Yes	No
PD1	Patient Additional Demographic	No	No
PV1	Patient Visit	No	No
PV2	Patient Visit - Additional Information	No	No
OBX	Observation/Result	No	Yes
DG1	Diagnosis	No	Yes
SIU_S12.RESOURCES	Resources group	Yes	Yes
RGS	Resource Group	Yes	No
SIU_S12.SERVICE	Service group	No	Yes
AIS	Appointment Information	Yes	No
NTE	Notes and Comments	No	Yes
SIU_S12.GENERAL_RESOURCE	General Resource group	No	Yes
AIG	Appointment Information - General Resource	Yes	No
NTE	Notes and Comments	No	Yes
SIU_S12.LOCATION_RESOURCE	Location Resource group	No	Yes
AIL	Appointment Information - Location Resource	Yes	No
NTE	Notes and Comments	No	Yes
SIU_S12.PERSONNEL_RESOURCE	Personnel Resource group	No	Yes
AIP	Appointment Information - Personnel Resource	Yes	No
NTE	Notes and Comments	No	Yes

SIU_S15 notifies other systems that an existing appointment has been canceled. The appointment was real, and the cancellation is part of normal scheduling history: the patient canceled, the clinic canceled, the provider became unavailable, or the service is no longer needed.

S15 uses the shared SIU^S15^SIU_S12 structure. The event code tells receivers this is cancellation, while the SIU_S12 structure carries the appointment, patient, and resource details needed to find and update the correct appointment.

A small SIU S15 example

MSH|^~\&|SCHED|CITYHOSP|EHR|CITYHOSP|20260717100000||SIU^S15^SIU_S12|SIU150042|P|2.5.1 SCH|A100045|F100045||PATIENT^Patient request^L|CANCELLED|OFFICE^Office visit^L|30|min|^^^20260719113000^20260719120000|||||12345^Careful^Clara NTE|1||Patient called to cancel and will rebook later. PID|1||123456^^^CITYHOSP^MR||Smith^Jane^Anne^^Ms^^L||19800314|F PV1|1|O|CARD^ROOM2^^CITYHOSP RGS|1 AIS|1||CARDREV^Cardiology review^L|20260719113000|30|min AIL|1||CARD^ROOM2^^CITYHOSP|20260719113000|30|min AIP|1||12345^Careful^Clara|CARD^Cardiologist^L|20260719113000|30|min

What systems do with it

The sender is the scheduling or filler system. Receivers cancel reminders, remove the appointment from worklists, free rooms and staff, update patient portals, and stop any appointment-driven care-flow automation. They may keep a canceled appointment record for history, reporting, waitlist logic, and audit.

SCH should identify the appointment clearly. The patient and resource groups give the receiver enough context to display, audit, or reconcile the cancellation. If the receiver cannot identify the appointment, a clean ACK with an application error is usually better than canceling the wrong item.

How to read the structure

S15 uses the SIU_S12 structure: MSH, SCH, optional timing and notes, optional patient group, and required resource group. Many interfaces still include AIS, AIL, and AIP on a cancellation because receivers need to release the same service, location, and personnel that were scheduled.

The actual cancellation reason and status are profile-specific. Some systems place it in SCH, some in notes, and some in local Z-segments. If cancellation reason drives reporting or patient messaging, do not leave it as unstructured free text unless everyone agrees.

Implementation traps

Cancellation is not deletion. A canceled appointment was valid but will not happen. A deleted appointment was entered in error and should not affect schedule statistics in the same way. Mixing S15 and S17 can distort no-show rates, utilization, audit trails, and patient communication.

Also do not use S15 for no-shows. A no-show means the appointment time passed and the patient did not arrive. That is S26 in the SIU family.

Reference notes

Caristix describes S15 as notifying other applications when an existing appointment has been canceled. HL7 Chapter 10 scheduling distinguishes cancel from delete, and practical SIU summaries from iNTERFACEWARE and Rhapsody list S15 as the appointment-cancellation notification.