How SNOMED CT is used and stored against patient records is another factor that can drive a successful implementation or not. The use of the SNOMED CT concept identifier is a mandatory requirement and for all the points in this section, it is important that implementations are quality assured and prove that these requirements are met.
- Must store SNOMED CT concept identifiers in the health records
- Store the SNOMED CT concept identifier (or SNOMED CT expression) together with the term selected by the user in the EHR for SNOMED CT coded data element.
- Ensure that the context of each SNOMED CT concept identifier or expression is clearly represented in either the information structure or the terminology (but not both).
- Ensure that all inactivated concepts, descriptions and relationships remain available to support querying over historical clinical data.