What Is HL7 v2 ORC-5? Order Status, Explained for Testers
ORC-5 and the result status carried later in OBR answer two different questions, and code that treats them as the same field ends up displaying an order as complete while the underlying result is still preliminary, or vice versa.
ORC-5 is the fifth field of the HL7 v2 ORC segment — a coded value giving the current status of the order itself, independent of whatever status the eventual result or observation carries. It answers 'where does this order stand' rather than 'what does the result say.'
Valid code values
Example
IP in the fifth field marks the order as in process. Synthetic order — not from a real facility.
Where this trips people up
Because ORC-5 and the result-level status field on OBR look similar and often carry overlapping code values, it's tempting to treat them as one field that just happens to appear twice. They can legitimately diverge: an order can sit at ORC-5 = IP while an individual OBR under it already reports a preliminary result, or an order can show CM at the ORC level while one of several associated OBR segments is still pending. A test suite that only ever sets both fields to the same value in lockstep will never catch a UI or reporting bug that reads the wrong one of the two.