HL7 RQD Segment: Requisition Detail

The RQD (Requisition Detail) segment conveys line-level detail for a non-stock requisition inside an HL7 v2 order. Each RQD line carries the requisition line number, the item being requested (using internal, external, or hospital code systems), the requisition quantity and unit of measure, the responsible cost center, the natural account code, and the delivery destination. RQD is typically paired with an RQ1 sibling segment that adds price, manufacturer, vendor, and substitution attributes.

Purpose

RQD describes what is being requisitioned at a line-item level when the requested item is not a clinical service order (for which OBR is used) and is not satisfied from on-hand stock. It is the supplies/non-stock counterpart to OBR within an order group. Each RQD/RQ1 pair is anchored by a parent ORC that holds the order control, ordering provider, and timing fields.

Common uses:

Non-stock pharmacy or materials requisitions raised from an EHR or ERP system.
Requests for special-order supplies that must be sourced externally.
Department-level requisitions where cost center and natural account code are required for chargeback.

Used in

RQD appears inside the order detail group of non-stock supply-requisition order messages, typically:

General order (ORM^O01) — order detail group when requisitioning a non-stock item.
General clinical order (OMG^O19) — order detail group for general orders that requisition items rather than services.
Order response / acknowledgement messages that echo the original requisition detail (ORR^O02, ORG^O20).

Within those messages, RQD follows the ORC for its order and is normally paired with an RQ1 segment that carries pricing and sourcing detail.

Field-by-field reference

The table below lists every RQD field defined in HL7 v2.5.1, as published in the HAPI v2.5.1 javadoc. Data types link to their dedicated reference pages. Required (Req) values reflect HL7's optionality (R = required, O = optional). Repeat is Y where the javadoc shows the field as repeating, otherwise "—". Table # is shown only where a well-established HL7 user-defined or HL7-defined table applies.

Seq	Name	Data Type	Length	Req	Repeat	Table #	Description
RQD-1	Requisition Line Number	si	—	R	—	—	Sequence number identifying this requisition line
RQD-2	Item Code - Internal	ce	—	O	—	—	Item identifier in the internal item master
RQD-3	Item Code - External	ce	—	O	—	—	Item identifier in an external catalog system
RQD-4	Hospital Item Code	ce	—	O	—	—	Hospital-assigned item or charge code
RQD-5	Requisition Quantity	nm	—	O	—	—	Numeric quantity of the item being requisitioned
RQD-6	Requisition Unit of Measure	ce	—	O	—	—	Unit of measure for the requisition quantity
RQD-7	Dept. Cost Center	is	—	O	—	—	Department or cost center to be charged
RQD-8	Item Natural Account Code	is	—	O	—	—	General-ledger natural account code for the item
RQD-9	Deliver To ID	ce	—	O	—	—	Location or person to receive the delivery
RQD-10	Date Needed	dt	—	O	—	—	Date by which the item is required on site

Most-used fields

RQD-1 Requisition Line Number — the only required field, used to order and reconcile lines when a single ORC has multiple RQD children.
RQD-2 Item Code - Internal — the primary identifier used by downstream materials and pharmacy systems.
RQD-5 Requisition Quantity and RQD-6 Requisition Unit of Measure — together they define how much is being requested; both should always travel as a pair.
RQD-7 Dept. Cost Center — required for finance reconciliation in most hospital implementations even though the standard marks it optional.
RQD-9 Deliver To ID — drives logistics routing, especially when the ordering provider's location differs from the receiving location.

Version differences (2.3 to 2.8.2)

HL7 v2.3 / v2.3.1 — RQD is defined with the same ten fields. Data types for several coded fields use CE.
HL7 v2.4 — field set unchanged; documentation clarifies that RQD is one of two alternative "requisition detail" segments (RQD or RQ1 as supplementary detail).
HL7 v2.5 / v2.5.1 — the version documented here. Coded fields remain CE; no new components are added.
HL7 v2.6 — coded fields begin shifting to CWE in some segments, but RQD's CE usage is retained for backward compatibility.
HL7 v2.7 / v2.7.1 — CE migrates to CWE for the item code fields in some implementations; the field count remains ten.
HL7 v2.8 / v2.8.1 / v2.8.2 — field set is stable. Implementers should confirm the data-type profile (CE vs CWE) negotiated for each interface.

Common mistakes

Sending an RQD without a parent ORC. RQD is a child of an order and cannot stand alone.
Omitting RQD-1 or reusing the same line number across siblings — line number is the only required field and is the reconciliation key.
Sending RQD-5 (quantity) without RQD-6 (unit of measure), forcing the receiver to assume a default UoM.
Using RQD when the requested item is actually a clinical service. Service orders belong on OBR; RQD is for non-stock items.
Populating both internal and hospital item codes with the same value, producing duplicate-identifier rejections downstream.
Confusing RQD with RQ1: RQD describes the item and quantity, RQ1 describes price, source, and substitution.

Examples

Minimal RQD

RQD|1|IV-TUBING-7F^IV Tubing 7F^L||||10|EA^Each^UCUM

Fully populated RQD

RQD|1|IV-TUBING-7F^IV Tubing 7F^L|81234^IV Tubing 7Fr^VENDORX|HOSP-9911^IV Tubing 7Fr^HOSP|10|EA^Each^UCUM|CC4490^ICU-Supply^L|6022^Med-Surg Supplies^L|ICU-N04^ICU North Stockroom^L|20260618

Annotated breakdown

RQD               Segment ID — Requisition Detail
|1                RQD-1  Requisition Line Number (SI) — line 1 of this order
|IV-TUBING-7F...  RQD-2  Item Code - Internal (CE) — internal master ID
|81234^...        RQD-3  Item Code - External (CE) — vendor catalog ID
|HOSP-9911^...    RQD-4  Hospital Item Code (CE) — chargemaster code
|10               RQD-5  Requisition Quantity (NM) — 10 units
|EA^Each^UCUM     RQD-6  Requisition Unit of Measure (CE)
|CC4490^...       RQD-7  Dept. Cost Center (IS) — ICU supply cost center
|6022^...         RQD-8  Item Natural Account Code (IS) — GL account
|ICU-N04^...      RQD-9  Deliver To ID (CE) — destination stockroom
|20260618         RQD-10 Date Needed (DT) — required by 18 Jun 2026

In-context excerpt — OMG^O19 non-stock requisition

MSH|^~&|ERP|HOSP|MM|VENDORX|20260610114500||OMG^O19^OMG_O19|MSG000771|P|2.5.1
PID|1||MRN0091^^^HOSP^MR||Doe^Jane^M||19710204|F
ORC|NW|REQ-2026-0771|||SC||||20260610114500|||DRBROWN^Brown^Eleanor^^^^MD
RQD|1|IV-TUBING-7F^IV Tubing 7F^L||HOSP-9911^IV Tubing 7Fr^HOSP|10|EA^Each^UCUM|CC4490^ICU-Supply^L|6022^Med-Surg Supplies^L|ICU-N04^ICU North Stockroom^L|20260618
RQ1||MFG-MEDLINE^Medline Industries^L|MED-7F-IV|VENDORX^VendorX Distribution^L|VX-IV-7F-100|N|Y

In-context excerpt — multi-line ORM^O01 requisition

MSH|^~&|ERP|HOSP|MM|VENDORX|20260610115300||ORM^O01^ORM_O01|MSG000772|P|2.5.1
PID|1||MRN0091^^^HOSP^MR||Doe^Jane^M||19710204|F
ORC|NW|REQ-2026-0772|||SC||||20260610115300|||DRBROWN^Brown^Eleanor^^^^MD
RQD|1|GLOVES-NIT-M^Nitrile Gloves M^L|||5|BX^Box^UCUM|CC4490^ICU-Supply^L|6022^Med-Surg Supplies^L|ICU-N04^ICU North Stockroom^L|20260615
RQ1||MFG-CARDINAL^Cardinal Health^L|CH-NIT-M-100|VENDORX^VendorX Distribution^L|VX-NIT-M|N|Y
RQD|2|GOWN-ISO-L^Isolation Gown L^L|||25|EA^Each^UCUM|CC4490^ICU-Supply^L|6022^Med-Surg Supplies^L|ICU-N04^ICU North Stockroom^L|20260615
RQ1||MFG-HALYARD^Halyard Health^L|HAL-GOWN-L|VENDORX^VendorX Distribution^L|VX-GOWN-L|N|Y

FHIR mapping

There is no segment-level ConceptMap published in the HL7 v2-to-FHIR Implementation Guide for RQD. Conceptually, RQD lines map to entries within a FHIR SupplyRequest:

RQD-1 → an internal identifier within the SupplyRequest line collection.
RQD-2/3/4 → SupplyRequest.item[x] (CodeableConcept), with one code system per field choice.
RQD-5 / RQD-6 → SupplyRequest.quantity (value and unit).
RQD-7 → SupplyRequest.deliverFor or a cost-center extension.
RQD-9 → SupplyRequest.deliverTo.
RQD-10 → SupplyRequest.occurrenceDateTime.

These mappings are conceptual; engines that bridge v2 supply orders to FHIR usually craft a profile-specific implementation rather than relying on a published ConceptMap.

Engine considerations

Line-number integrity — engines should validate that RQD-1 is unique within an order group and stable across retransmissions.
Code-system choice — many implementations send only one of RQD-2/3/4. Engines should prefer the most specific identifier available and never assume one of the three is always populated.
UoM normalization — when downstream systems require UCUM, engines should normalize RQD-6 from local codes (EA, BX, CS) to UCUM equivalents.
Cost-center governance — RQD-7 and RQD-8 are commonly required by ERP receivers even though the standard marks them optional. Profile validation should enforce this at the interface level.
Date semantics — RQD-10 is a date (DT), not a date/time. Engines must not silently widen it to a TS or apply a default time of midnight.

How Vorro parses and produces RQD

Vorro's HL7 v2 engine treats RQD as a strongly typed child of the order group:

On inbound parsing, RQD-1 is validated as a positive integer and used as the primary key when reconciling lines against an in-flight order.
Item codes (RQD-2/3/4) are extracted into a canonical ItemReference structure that preserves all three codings; downstream consumers choose which to use without re-parsing.
RQD-5/RQD-6 are bound together as a Quantity value object. The engine refuses to emit one without the other and surfaces a profile-level warning if only quantity is received.
RQD-7 and RQD-8 are validated against the configured cost-center and GL-account tables; unknown codes are quarantined for review rather than dropped silently.
On outbound generation, Vorro guarantees RQD ordering, populates RQD-9 from the upstream delivery routing, and writes RQD-10 as a strict YYYYMMDD value with no time component.

Sources

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