nulling a blank Segment

[Robbie Parker]

Any ideas on how to get rid of a completely blank segment w/i the xlate?  

1) Using Bulkcopy at the beginning

2) sometimes the sender sends out blank PV1 segments, but not always

example, I receive from sender:

MSH|^~&|ATHENANET|…….

EVN|A28|200709100324

PID||4021||……..

PV1

GT1|||……..

I’m thinking something like

IF 0(0).PV1 eq @null

 PATHCOPY @null to 0(0).PV1

but I get compile errors.  Is this even possible inside and xlate or should I stick to tcl proc?[/i]

Topic

[Robert Milfajt]

You need to make sure in the outbound HL7 format that you are using, the PV1 segment is optional.  If it is mandatory, it will be carried forward like this.

Hope this helps

Robert Milfajt
Northwestern Medicine
Chicago, IL

[Jim Kosloskey]

Robbie,

First of all – shame on the sending system. Segments are not to be sent empty if their definition has at least one required field. The PV1 has Patient Class as a required field (unless negotiated away).

However…

I think the issue is you are attempting to check the segment ID.

Instead, check a required field in the PV1 that you know will ALWAYS be populated if the PV1 is not empty (maybe Patient Class or Set ID??).

Still check for @null.

Of course were you not using BULKCOPY there are other ways to resolve the issue.

Jim Kosloskey

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

[Robbie Parker]

thanks all….

making the segment optional did the trick w/o any additional coding.

[Jim Kosloskey]

Robbie,

Here is a case where I don’t think it would matter if the outbound variant had the PV1 as a required segment if BULKCOPY were not involved.

Without BULKCOPY, you would only COPY, etc. the elements of the PV1 segment if they existed. If no fields ended up getting populated as a result of on inbound segment, then I don’t think the Xlate would produce the PV1 segment.

I think with BULKCOPY, there is a sensitivity to the outbound variant and an empty required segment will be produced even if there is no equivalent inbound segment as a source.

I am glad it was a simple solution, just be aware that if this same variant is used for other integrations (probably not a good idea), the definition of the PV1 as an optional rather than required segment could cause issue.

Thanks,

Jim Kosloskey

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

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