Define the duration of an encounter for a particular problem and hence the end point. Hence an URTI might last 10 days, an uncomplicated fractured femur might last 8 weeks. All entries added to the problem before the explicit creation of a further episode are linked to the first one. Thus the user must make a deliberate action to record a new episode. A POMR which has been in use for some time will often become complex.
Some problems have many components.
Ischaemic Heart Disease may have elements of Angina, Myocardial Infarction and Left Ventricular Failure, all of which need to be considered separately. Further structuring is desirable. Hence sub-problems are problems contained within a problem. In other ways they behave just as problems but provide a grouping mechanism for a list of related entries. They can, of course, be episodic.