What Is an ORU Message?

October 5th, 2006 by NeoTool

10 Votes | Average: 4 out of 5 (10 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Posted in HL7 Messaging, HL7 Terms, What is HL7?, HL7 Standard

HL7 terms to better understand what is HL7. In the HL7 Standard, an Observation Result (ORU) is usually in response to an order and provides clinical observations.

In HL7 messaging, ORU messages provide structured patient-oriented clinical data between systems (e.g., EKG results to a physician’s office). ORU messages also can be used for linking orders and results to clinical trials (e.g., new drugs or new devices).

Clinical observations can include:

Clinical laboratory results
Imaging studies (i.e., text)
EKG pulmonary function studies
Interpretation

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9 Responses to “What Is an ORU Message?”

What Is an OBX? says:

[…] In HL7 v2.x, the OBX is a segment used to transmit a single observation or observation fragment. It represents the smallest indivisible unit of a report. The principal mission of an OBX is to carry information about observations and results in report messages (i.e., ORU or MDM). […]
How Do HL7 and XML Co-Exist in Clinical Interfacing? says:

[…] Question: Do tools exist to help me map a HL7 version 2.4 ORU message into an XML formatted CCR document? […]
How Widely Adopted Is HL7? says:

[…] For example, an EMR application running in a five physician office might use HL7 for lab results (ORU) but not for demographics (ADT), orders (ORM), or scheduling (SIU) messages at […]
How Do I Send a Binary File Inside of an HL7 Message? says:

[…] contents of the ORU message are “wide open” and everything from vital signs to dictated documents can be sent via […]
Interfacing Challenge: Patient Matching says:

[…] on the requisition, the patient ID is entered into the LIS or RIS as part of the order. When the HL7 result message (ORU) is generated, the system would include the patient ID. At this stage, there are three […]
Streamline the Billing Workflow with HL7 says:

[…] ORU = Observation Result Unsolicited […]
Variations of the HL7 ORU^R01 Message Format says:

[…] An imaging center (IC) is receiving some order messages (ORM^O01) from 2 external hospitals for which they complete the orders and send back transcribed […]
PDF Attachment in HL7 Message says:

[…] actual encoding of the document is often done via either a ED or RP datatype inside of an ORU message. Review these prior blog postings for […]
Integrating EMRs with Reference Labs says:

[…] challenges of using HL7 Orders and HL7 Results in a standard way — typically via profiling such as ELINCS profile (also described […]