Practitioner returned by /Practitioner/{id} is missing from /Practitioner search

[jayant-walvekar-falconeer]

We have an active practitioner that can be fetched by id but does not appear in any /Practitioner search response, regardless of search parameters. We are trying to understand whether this is expected behavior or an index issue.

Reproduction (same OAuth token, Content-Type: application/fhir+json):

GET /Practitioner/{id} returns 200 with active: true.
GET /Practitioner returns a Bundle that does not contain this practitioner.
GET /Practitioner?_count=100 returns the same Bundle with the same total; practitioner still missing (so it is not a pagination issue).
GET /Practitioner?_count=200&active=true returns the same total; practitioner still missing.
GET /Practitioner?email= returns total=0.
Other practitioners on the same primary practice location and with similar configuration are returned by /Practitioner search correctly. Toggling the practitioner active off and on in the UI did not change the search results.

If you have access to my dev sandbox then you can try this. The ID of the entity in question is 9832e....

Questions:

Is there a known condition (creation path, missing field, role configuration, location membership, internal flag) that causes a practitioner to be excluded from /Practitioner search while remaining fetchable by id?
Is there a way to force the practitioner to re-appear in /Practitioner search results without contacting support — for example, an admin action in the UI, or a specific field edit that triggers a re-index?
Has anyone else hit this and found a workaround?
Any pointers appreciated.

[rmagier1]

Hi @jayant-walvekar-falconeer — yes, this is expected behavior driven by a default filter on /Practitioner search. Your practitioner is being filtered out because they are not a "schedulable" role on your sandbox.

What we found on your dev instance

• Practitioner: 9832e...
• Role: Medical Assistant (internal code MA)
• Your SCHEDULABLE_STAFF_ROLES organization setting: ["MD", "DO", "NP", "PA"]

MA is not in that list, so the practitioner is considered non-schedulable.

Why /Practitioner/{id} works but /Practitioner search doesn't

The two endpoints use different backend resolvers:

• GET /Practitioner/{id} — returns that practitioner regardless of role or active status.
• GET /Practitioner (search) — defaults restricts results to staff whose role is in SCHEDULABLE_STAFF_ROLES. Everyone else (including this Medical Assistant) is excluded.

This also explains the other behaviors you observed:

• Toggling active had no effect — the filter is on role, not active.
• ?email=... returned 0 — the schedulable filter is still applied.
• Adding ?active=true&_count=200 didn't help — same filter.

Solution

Pass the Canvas-specific search parameter to disable the default filter:

GET /Practitioner?include-non-schedulable-practitioners=true

You can combine it with other parameters:

GET /Practitioner?include-non-schedulable-practitioners=true&email=<email>
GET /Practitioner?include-non-schedulable-practitioners=true&active=true&_count=200

The parameter is documented as a Canvas search-parameter extension in our FHIR API. It accepts true / false; the default is false (i.e., schedulable only).