Aren’t functional specifications worthless?
You can make a case that functional specifications aren’t very useful, and you’d be correct in a lot of cases. However, the RLUS SFM is considered mandatory for three reasons: 1) It supports the cross organizational work being done by HSSP, and creates an artifact that can span organizations 2) It gives healthcare at large a place to define their needs and requirements for a component that nearly everyone agrees is necessary 3) It is an attempt to define a service layer that surrounds many other mechanisms and systems that are already endorsed by HL7.
