Medication Prescription and Dispense (MPD), published by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 1.0.0-comment-2 built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/IHE/pharm-mpd/tree/jct-draft and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions
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Grouping and Coordinating Orders

This page details the patterns for grouping related medication orders and coordinating their execution. For general principles, see Status and Workflow Management. For structural details on single- and multi-line prescriptions, see Single- and multiline prescriptions.

1. Single-line Prescriptions

In many jurisdictions, each prescription corresponds to exactly one medication line. Each MedicationRequest stands alone as an independent prescription.

# A single-line prescription — one MedicationRequest, self-contained
MedicationRequest:
  id: "rx-001"
  status: "active"
  intent: "order"
  identifier:
    - system: "http://pharmacy.example.org/prescriptions"
      value: "RX-2025-001"
  medication:
    concept:
      text: "Amoxicillin 500mg capsule"
  subject:
    reference: "Patient/patient-1"
  requester:
    reference: "Practitioner/dr-smith"
  dosageInstruction:
    - text: "Take 1 capsule three times daily for 7 days"

No grouping elements are needed. The prescription identifier and the order identifier are the same.

2. Multi-line Prescriptions

In other jurisdictions, a prescription is a document containing multiple medication lines. Each line is a separate MedicationRequest, and they are linked by a shared groupIdentifier.

# Line 1 of a multi-line prescription
MedicationRequest:
  id: "rx-line-001"
  status: "active"
  intent: "order"
  groupIdentifier:
    system: "http://pharmacy.example.org/prescriptions"
    value: "RX-2025-100"                         # Shared across all lines
  identifier:
    - system: "http://pharmacy.example.org/prescription-lines"
      value: "RX-2025-100-1"                     # Unique per line
  medication:
    concept:
      text: "Omeprazole 20mg capsule"
  subject:
    reference: "Patient/patient-1"
  requester:
    reference: "Practitioner/dr-smith"
  dosageInstruction:
    - text: "Take 1 capsule once daily in the morning"

# Line 2 of the same prescription
MedicationRequest:
  id: "rx-line-002"
  status: "active"
  intent: "order"
  groupIdentifier:
    system: "http://pharmacy.example.org/prescriptions"
    value: "RX-2025-100"                         # Same groupIdentifier
  identifier:
    - system: "http://pharmacy.example.org/prescription-lines"
      value: "RX-2025-100-2"
  medication:
    concept:
      text: "Amoxicillin 1g tablet"
  subject:
    reference: "Patient/patient-1"
  requester:
    reference: "Practitioner/dr-smith"
  dosageInstruction:
    - text: "Take 1 tablet twice daily for 10 days"

These two approaches are compatible. A system that works with single-line prescriptions can process multi-line data by treating each line independently. The groupIdentifier is an optional grouping signal — not a structural dependency.

3. Coordinating Execution Across Lines

When multiple prescription lines must be fulfilled together, a coordination Task groups the individual requests into a single unit of work. The coordination Task's focus points at each of the MedicationRequests that must be fulfilled together.

This is commonly needed when:

• A combination therapy must be dispensed in a single visit
• Local regulations require that all lines of a multi-line prescription be dispensed at the same place or occasion
• Clinical safety requires that medications be dispensed together (e.g., a drug and its required adjunct)

In FHIR R5 (where Task.focus has cardinality 0..1), the extension mechanism described in the grouping page allows multiple focus references.

# Coordination Task: all lines of this prescription must be dispensed together
# (e.g., local regulations require single-point dispensation for multi-line orders)
Task:
  status: "requested"
  intent: "order"
  code:
    coding:
      - system: "http://hl7.org/fhir/CodeSystem/task-code"
        code: "fulfill"
        display: "Fulfill the focal request"
  focus:
    reference: "MedicationRequest/rx-line-001"
  # Additional focus references via extension (R5)
  extension:
    - url: "http://hl7.org/fhir/4.0/StructureDefinition/extension-Task.focus"
      valueReference:
        reference: "MedicationRequest/rx-line-002"
    - url: "http://hl7.org/fhir/4.0/StructureDefinition/extension-Task.focus"
      valueReference:
        reference: "MedicationRequest/rx-line-003"
  requester:
    reference: "Practitioner/dr-smith"
  owner:
    reference: "Organization/pharmacy-abc"

This coordination Task acts as the single point of workflow management for the group. The pharmacy accepts or rejects the coordinated fulfillment as a whole. Each individual MedicationRequest remains an independent authorization — the coordination is purely at the execution level, expressed through the Task.

The coordination Task does not replace or duplicate the orders. It simply says: "these requests must be fulfilled together." The orders themselves may each have their own individual execution Tasks in addition to the coordination Task, depending on the system's needs.

4. Dependencies Between Orders

When orders have sequencing, conditional, or alternative relationships — for example, "take medication A for 5 days, then switch to medication B" — a RequestOrchestration resource expresses these dependencies.

# RequestOrchestration: sequential therapy
RequestOrchestration:
  id: "ro-sequential-therapy"
  status: "active"
  intent: "order"
  subject:
    reference: "Patient/patient-1"
  action:
    # First action: take Amoxicillin
    - title: "Phase 1: Amoxicillin"
      resource:
        reference: "MedicationRequest/rx-phase1"
      relatedAction:
        - targetId: "phase2"
          relationship: "before"
    # Second action: switch to Clarithromycin
    - id: "phase2"
      title: "Phase 2: Clarithromycin"
      resource:
        reference: "MedicationRequest/rx-phase2"

RequestOrchestration can express:

• Sequencing: one order must be completed before the next begins (before, after)
• Alternatives: one of several possible medications (any grouping behavior)
• All required: all orders in the group must be fulfilled (all grouping behavior)
• Conditional logic: actions that depend on conditions or outcomes

Note: RequestOrchestration manages clinical intent — the what and when. Task manages workflow — the who and how. They complement each other: a RequestOrchestration defines the plan, and Tasks coordinate its execution.