Add a Field Seperator

[Collin Praster]

Hello, I might be overthinking this.

My Practice Management is sending over a first and last name no seperators.

My EHR wants it LastName^FirstName

How can I accomplish this in an xlate?

Topic

[Paul Bishop]

I would do it using a tcl code snippit on a copy command.  Source would be your field that has the full name, destination would be the name sub-fields (PID-5.0 and PID-5.1).

lassign $xlateInvals in_name
# assuming “<firstname> <lastname>”
# pull out last name
set out_pid_5_0 [lindex $in_name end]
# pull out first name – everything except last position
set out_pid_5_1 [lrange $in_name 0 end-1]
set xlateOutVals

you could get more fancy by checking the list length and pulling out the middle name separately.  Of course, the ideal fix would be to have the source send it to you properly but we all know that isn’t always feasible.

for some reason the last line isn’t displaying correctly.  you set “xlateOutVals” to a list of both out variables in the order they are in the Destination field.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Paul Bishop. Reason: trying to get last line of snippit to display correct.y
• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Paul Bishop.

Paul Bishop
Carle Foundation Hospital
Urbana, IL

[Anonymous]

in its simplest form, I would probably add a Pre Proc something like this:

lassign $xlateInVals name_first name_last
set xlateOutVals [ list $name_last $name_first ]

…where the Destination fields are PID:5.1, PID:5.2

of coarse, if they send name_first name_mi name_last on occasion, it will get a little more complicated.

[Collin Praster]

Hi Paul

I am still using cloverleaf 5.8, those tcl commands dont work, is there something similar in an older version of TCL?

[Charlie Bursell]

What separates last name from first name?

[Collin Praster]

Its just a free text field so there is no separators

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Collin Praster.

[Jim Kosloskey]

Therein lies a big problem. There is probably a space between first and last name so you could split on space but what if the last name was something like ‘De Jesus’?

A name like ‘Ronaldo De Jesus’ would produce 3 elements from a split and you may only be planning for 2 so you would get First = Ronaldo, Last = De.

While it may be an issue for the sending system to place the name components properly in the HL/7 field, it may be easier if you ask them to separate the names with a comma then you split on comma.

Then something like ‘Ronaldo, De Jesus’ could be split on comma and result in what you want (you might have a leading or trailing space in one of the fields depending on formatting). That should work fine with non-prefixed last names as well.

If there can be middle names or initials, using a comma and insisting it be present even for a missing middle will also work.

In that case it may be likely the STRING Action Split function will be all you need.

 

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Charlie Bursell]

Post examples of IB field

[Collin Praster]

GT1|1|2393979|Testing^Vmc98|Parents Name|

[Charlie Bursell]

Is there always a space between last first?  Even with that, as Jim said, what if space in last name?  Tell your vendor sending the data that you must have a method to parse the name.  Point out to them they are in line with the HL7 spec which defines last, first, middle in separate subfields.

[Charlie Bursell]

Did you resolve this?

[Collin Praster]

Sorry For the late response yes I have resolved this.

[Author]

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