FormularyItem
A line of an institutional formulary (drug list): referenced drug, status, prescribing restrictions.
Purpose
FormularyItem captures the listing of a drug in an institutional formulary — hospital, hospital pharmacy or insurer. The listing governs what may be prescribed and with which restrictions (specialist physician required, mandatory pharmacist validation, service restriction). It is the CPOE's upstream filter for dispensing and billing.
Key elements
| Field | Type | Cardinality | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
identifier | Identifier[] | 0..* | External identifiers. |
code | CodeableConcept | 0..1 | Drug code (CIP, UCD, RxNorm). |
status | code | 0..1 | `active`, `entered-in-error`, `inactive`. |
JSON example
{
"resourceType": "FormularyItem",
"id": "example-formulary-aspirin",
"identifier": [{
"system": "https://hospital01.example.org/formulary",
"value": "FORM-2026-00123"
}],
"code": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://www.ansm.sante.fr/cip",
"code": "3400938153317",
"display": "Aspirine 500mg, comprimé"
}]
},
"status": "active"
}Common pitfalls
- FormularyItem confused with MedicationKnowledge: Formulary is administrative; MedicationKnowledge is clinical-pharmacological.
- No versioning: status changes without history make audits impossible.
- Local-only drug code not linked to a national system (CIP, RxNorm): information silos.
Related resources
- medication — referenced drug.
- medicationknowledge — pharmacological knowledge.
- medicationrequest — prescription consuming the formulary.
- organization — formulary-owning organisation.