HL7 ODS Segment: Dietary Orders, Supplements, and Preferences

Overview

The ODS (Dietary Orders, Supplements, and Preferences) segment communicates the dietary specifics of a patient order — what kind of dietary instruction is being given, when it applies, what diet, supplement, or preference is selected, and any free-text clarification. It is the workhorse of the dietary order domain in HL7 v2.5.1, sitting under an ORC within an OMD dietary order message.

ODS works alongside ODT (tray instructions) to fully describe a meal service plan. Where ODT focuses on how the tray is delivered, ODS focuses on what the patient eats — the diet code, supplement, or preference that drives the kitchen.

When to use ODS

Use ODS to convey:

A standing diet order (e.g., Regular, Cardiac, Renal, NPO).
Supplements appended to a base diet (e.g., Ensure, protein shake).
Patient preferences and aversions (e.g., no pork, kosher, vegetarian).
Free-text dietary guidance that does not fit a coded value.

ODS may repeat within the dietary order group when more than one diet, supplement, or preference applies to the same service period.

Field-by-field reference

ODS has four fields. ODS-1 (Type) declares whether the segment communicates a diet, supplement, or preference. ODS-3 (Diet, Supplement, or Preference Code) carries the coded selection and is required. ODS-2 (Service Period) and ODS-4 (Text Instruction) are optional and may repeat.

Seq	Name	Data Type	Length	Req	Repeat	Table #	Description
ODS-1	Type	id	—	R	—	[HL70159]	Diet, supplement, or preference indicator
ODS-2	Service Period	ce	—	O	Y	—	When the dietary item applies
ODS-3	Diet, Supplement, or Preference Code	ce	—	R	Y	—	Coded diet, supplement, or preference value
ODS-4	Text Instruction	st	—	O	Y	—	Free-text instructions for kitchen staff

Examples

Minimal ODS

A bare ODS conveying a single regular diet:

ODS|D||REG^Regular Diet^L

Fully populated ODS

A breakfast supplement order with service period and a clarifying note:

ODS|S|BREAKFAST^Breakfast Service^L|ENS^Ensure Vanilla 8oz^L|Serve chilled with straw

Annotated breakdown

ODS                    Segment ID
|S                     ODS-1  Type = Supplement
|BREAKFAST^Breakfast Service^L
                       ODS-2  Service Period (CE)
|ENS^Ensure Vanilla 8oz^L
                       ODS-3  Diet, Supplement, or Preference Code (CE)
|Serve chilled with straw
                       ODS-4  Text Instruction (ST)

In-context excerpts (OMD)

Two ODS segments under an ORC inside an OMD dietary order message — a base diet plus a supplement:

ORC|NW|DO-77821^VORRO|||||^^^20260610080000^^R||20260610075412|NUR4421^Nguyen^Rita^^^^RN|||||MAIN^Main Kitchen
ODS|D||CARDIAC^Cardiac 2g Sodium^L|Low added salt at table
ODS|S|LUNCH^Lunch Service^L|PROT^Protein Shake Chocolate^L

A preference combined with a free-text aversion note:

ORC|NW|DO-77822^VORRO|||||^^^20260610120000^^R||20260610115008|NUR4421^Nguyen^Rita^^^^RN
ODS|P||VEG^Vegetarian^L|No eggs per patient request

Used in

ODS appears in dietary order messages:

OMD — Dietary Order — grouped with ORC and optionally ODT.

ODT — Diet Tray Instructions.
ORC — Common Order header that precedes ODS in the dietary order group.

FHIR mapping

No segment-level ConceptMap is published in the v2-to-FHIR Implementation Guide for ODS. Conceptually, ODS data maps to a FHIR NutritionOrder resource — ODS-3 informs NutritionOrder.oralDiet.type, NutritionOrder.supplement.type, or NutritionOrder.oralDiet.fluidConsistencyType depending on ODS-1, and ODS-4 maps to NutritionOrder.oralDiet.instruction.

Sources

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