Submitted by RUy on
Reaffirming support for Vital Signs Date and Timestamps
NACHC supports promoting 'Vital sign results: date and timestamps' from Level 2 to draft USCDI v5. Although vital signs measurements are crucial in assessing health risks, its interpretation requires details like time, readings, and protocols. In July 2023, ONC acknowledged this need for additional information on average blood pressure. The 'Vital sign results: date and timestamps' element can supply this information. Different measurement protocols also yield varying hypertension thresholds, emphasizing the need for accurate protocol knowledge in tandem with vital signs metadata. Various clinical scenarios need accurate time and date stamps in proper ISO 8601 format, such as consecutive days for home vital signs measurements, single dates for clinic readings, and specific timeframes for ambulatory measurements. NACHC urges ONC to include this element in draft USCDI v5 for better contextualizing average blood pressure.
See attached letter of support for more information.
Submitted by erjones on
Please Include Vital Signs Results in USCDI v5
The addition of dates and timestamps would allow for trending of vital signs over time from various visits rather than relying on the date that the vital sign results were uploaded. This information could be especially helpful when initially adding patient data into FHIR databases. For example, if three blood pressures from different visits across three different months were all uploaded at once into an FHIR server, they would all show the same date that they were uploaded rather than having a reference date from when they were actually recorded.