CommunicationRequest — Send request
A communication must take place: alert to transmit, planned notification, instruction to deliver. CommunicationRequest is the order, Communication records the execution.
Purpose
CommunicationRequest is part of the FHIR "Request" family (ServiceRequest, MedicationRequest, DeviceRequest). Models a send request: the physician orders an alert to be issued to the on-call team, a notification to be sent to a patient, an instruction to flow to a team. Execution generates a Communication resource.
Key fields
| Field | Type | Cardinality | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
status | code | 1..1 | draft, active, on-hold, revoked, completed, entered-in-error, unknown. |
intent | code | 1..1 | proposal, plan, directive, order, original-order… |
priority | code | 0..1 | routine, urgent, asap, stat. |
subject | Reference(Patient | Group) | 0..1 | Request subject. |
recipient | Reference(...)[] | 0..* | Intended recipients. |
requester | Reference(Practitioner | PractitionerRole | Organization | Patient | RelatedPerson | Device) | 0..1 | Requester. |
occurrence[x] | dateTime | Period | 0..1 | When the communication should take place. |
payload | BackboneElement[] | 0..* | Content to transmit. |
reasonCode | CodeableConcept[] | 0..* | Request justification. |
JSON example
Request to alert the on-call team:
{
"resourceType": "CommunicationRequest",
"id": "example",
"status": "active",
"intent": "order",
"priority": "asap",
"subject": { "reference": "Patient/example" },
"occurrenceDateTime": "2026-05-16T16:00:00Z",
"recipient": [{ "reference": "Practitioner/dr-on-call" }],
"requester": { "reference": "Practitioner/dr-smith" },
"reasonCode": [{
"coding": [{
"system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
"code": "315004001",
"display": "Treatment alert"
}]
}],
"payload": [{ "contentString": "Patient blood pressure dropped. Please review immediately." }]
}Common pitfalls
- Status / intent misaligned:
status=activewithoutintent=order= ambiguous for an execution engine. - No chaining with Communication: the executed Communication must reference CommunicationRequest via
basedOn. - Urgent priority without escalation: if the receiver EHR does not support automatic escalation, urgent requests risk being treated as routine.
Related resources
- Communication — execution record.
- Task — encompassing operational workflow.
- ServiceRequest, MedicationRequest — other Request families.
See also: Communication, Task.