Iteration on field in vrl

[Mike P Smith]

Are we still unable to do an iteration on a field in a vrl?

Topic

[Jim Kosloskey]

As far as I know field repetition does not exist for VRL.

How much control do you have over the structure of the record/message?

Maybe a combination defined within an HRL can get you what you need.

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

[Mike P Smith]

I’m not sure what you mean by control. This file comes from a client.

The format of the vrl is:

Account#|Ref Dr|Pat Type|I9^Diag1~I9^Diag2~I9^Diag3

I was able to get it to work using a list iteration. But I had to limit it to fixed number of codes.

I would like to use a method that would map all the codes into separate DG1 segments regardless of how many there are.

It was unusual that the field used HL7 delimiters in a VRL. So, we tried copying them over to a temp field on the right side and then trying a field iteration from that side. But it did not work.

[Daniel Lee]

This may be too crazy of a solution but from what I can see of the data you provided I think you could create an HRL that works.  I think this will only work if “I9” is always in the first componant of the repeated field.  If so, then you could set up the fields leading up to your ICD9 data as one VRL, set the repeating ICD9 data up as a second VRL (using a carrot as the field seperator), and any trailing fields could be set up as a third VRL.  Then in your HRL, set up the ICD9 data as a “Repeat While” and in the “Field:” box put the name of the field (something like I9VRL.I9Field or whatever you named the VRL and Field in your VRL) and in the “Value:” box put I9.

If your lucky enough to have that “I9” text consistantly in the first componant I think what’s I’ve said above is possible.  Without some sort of tag on the repeating data I’ve never been able to figure out how to do what you’re asking in a VRL.

[Jim Kosloskey]

Mike,

If you can get the List ITERATE to work, I can show you how to to a controlled loop – if there iis something you can lock onto to recognize when you have reached the end of the repetitions.

If you are interested, email me and we can work on this off-line.

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

[Charlie Bursell]

Why not simply normalize it to an HL7 variant?  Just add dummy MSH and define a variant.  Then you can iterate any way you like

[Mike P Smith]

Thank you Jim, Daniel and Charlie.

Sounds like Jim’s solution might be the easiest and the most useful going forward.

Normalizing to HL7 might be an interesting thing to learn how to do. I’ll need to pursue this method in the near future.

Jim, I’ll contact you offline.

Thanks

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