I am writing to seek clarification regarding the requester for the Hospital Dietitian referral in the context of the QRDA data element. Specifically, I would like to understand whether the requester must be a physician, or if a nurse's counsel that triggers a dietitian referral would satisfy this data element.

According to the provided guidance: "The requester is who or what is requesting service (e.g., the individual or organization asking for the service to be carried out). The requester attribute references the new QDM entities (Patient, Care Partner, Practitioner, Organization, or Location) and any or all of the attributes of the respective QDM entity. For example, to reference that a physician who requested a procedure is the same person who was the primary participant in an 'Encounter, Performed' and assure the physician's specialty meets the measure's requirements, the eCQM can use the Practitioner entity and its attributes. Should the eCQM choose to reference a physician practice or a hospital, the performer can reference the Organization entity and indicate the identifier and/or the organization type." 

Given this context, can you please confirm if a nurse's counsel initiating a dietitian referral would be acceptable as the requester for the data element, or if it must explicitly be a physician?

Thank you for your assistance.

["Intervention, Order" | eCQI Resource Center (healthit.gov)|https://ecqi.healthit.gov/mcw/2024/qdm-dataelement/interventionorder.html]

[["Intervention, Order": "Hospital Dietitian Referral"] | eCQI Resource Center (healthit.gov)|https://ecqi.healthit.gov/mcw/2024/ecqm-dataelement/interventionorderhospitaldietitianreferral.html]