The ability to identify how an observation is "done" provides meaningful information to clinical and community base communities. This includes identifying if the details of the observation are collected by the patient self-reporting the response, a related person provides the response, or if the person responsible for documenting the details observed provides the response. Including this level of detail has important meaning and provides important insight. It has also been identified as a requirement from quality agencies such as NCQF to identify if the race and ethnicity was reported by the patient or collected by some other means. Providing basic guidance on an extensible value set is necessary and the value set for Observation.method is the appropriate place to support collecting this import detail.  

For the following Observation profiles, US Core should include the value set (SDOHCC ValueSet Observation Method http://hl7.org/fhir/us/sdoh-clinicalcare/ValueSet/SDOHCC-ValueSetObservationMethod ) identified by Gravity for Obsevation.method:

• US Core Observation Occupation Profile
• US Core Observation Pregnancy Intent Profile
• US Core Observation Screening Assessment Profile
• US Core Observation Sexual Orientation Profile
• US Core Simple Observation Profile
• US Core Smoking Status Observation Profile

Related Sections:

• http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/StructureDefinition/us-core-observation-occupation
• http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/StructureDefinition/us-core-observation-pregnancyintent
• http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/2023Jan/StructureDefinition-us-core-observation-sexual-orientation.html
• http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/2023Jan/StructureDefinition-us-core-simple-observation.html
• http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/2023Jan/StructureDefinition-us-core-smokingstatus.html