FHIR R4 NutritionOrder Library

Overview

This asset is a component of MuleSoft Accelerator for Healthcare.

MuleSoft Accelerator for Healthcare enables healthcare providers to unlock critical patient data to build a patient 360 within Salesforce Health Cloud, faster and easier than ever before. The solution includes pre-built APIs, connectors, integration templates, and prescriptive end-to-end reference architecture to bring patient demographics information and COVID-19 test results from any EHR into Health Cloud using HL7 V2 or FHIR standards.

The solution also provides a library of United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) and FHIR R4 resources to help healthcare developers adhere to interoperability needs and jumpstart the development of healthcare digital transformation initiatives.

Use case covered

This resource is a request resource from a FHIR workflow perspective - see Workflow. It is the intent of the Orders and Observation Workgroup to align this resource with the workflow pattern for request resources.

The NutritionOrder resource describes a request for oral diets (including general diets such as General Healthy diet, or therapeutic diets such as Consistent Carbohydrate, 2 gram Sodium, or Fluid Restricted), oral nutrition supplements (such as nutritionally complete pre-packed drinks), enteral nutrition (tube feedings) and infant formula which govern the distribution of food and nutritional products used to feed patients within an in-patient setting. It does not cover orders for parenteral (IV) nutrition which are typically filled by pharmacy. These nutrition orders are combined with information on a patient's food allergies and intolerances, and ethnic or cultural food preferences (e.g. Kosher or Vegetarian) to inform healthcare personnel about the type, texture, and/or quantity of foods that the patient should receive or consume.

Enteral orders are distinguished from supplements because they have some unique attributes and typically include administration information whereas oral nutritional supplements may simply be supplied (e.g. home health or outpatient settings). In a simple case, the requestor may designate type of product, product name and the route of administration along with free text instructions without a having to complete the additional structured details.

This resource is intended to be used by providers from a variety of specialties such as physicians, dietitian/nutritionists, or speech therapists. One provider may simply order a base element oral diet such as General Healthful diet. Another provider, based on scope of practice, may use other elements to communicate additional therapeutic needs or patient preferences. The optionality included gives an ordering provider the capability to write a simple order for an oral diet, nutritional supplement or formula with minimal requirements beyond that of specifying the diet, supplement or formula product, but also supports the ability to provide more detailed information that may be further augmented by a dietitian or nutrition specialist. For example, a physician may order a 2 g sodium diet. A speech therapist, based on the results of a swallowing evaluation, then orders a mechanically altered texture with nectar thick liquids.

This library is used by FHIR R4 NutritionOrder API.

More information about FHIR R4 NutritionOrder specification can be found here.