PID#5 being cut off on outbound…?

[Jason]

Ok this is probably a noob question but I’m having a, to me, weird issue. We’re testing long patient names and I’m seeing a super long patient name come in on PID#5 on the inbound but on the outbound, the same field is being cut down to 48 characters, even though in the HL7 configurator it’s the same on both the inbound and outbound HL7…

so on the inbound, there’s 3 sub-fields to the PID#5: FirstName^MiddleName^LastName
those all come through fine on the inbound, but on the outbound, it cuts off the middle name so I only get FirstName^(half of the middle name); no last name..

The HL7 configurator says the field is repeating and each of the First, middle, last are less than or equal to 48 characters…

any advice?? thanks!

Topic

[John Mercogliano]

Jason, the Length applies to the field. the combination of the subfields has to be less the 48 in your case. So it is being truncated as it is being copied. If you don’t have a variant you will need to create one and either increase the size or if you are on 6.1 there is an unlimited option. Not sure what version that was added in.

John Mercogliano
Sentara Healthcare
Hampton Roads, VA

[Peter Heggie]

What version of Cloverleaf are you on? What is the message type (ADT_A08, ORM?) and what version of the HL7 format is it (2.5.1, 2.7?).

Have you tried substituting several COPY statements – copying the individual subfields one at a time – instead of one COPY statement for the entire field?

Peter Heggie

[Jason]

ok, I think I fixed it, I had to update the field to unlimited and then it came through.

Couple questions,

1) why didn’t the inbound HL7 message follow the 48 length restriction and get off as well?

2) what does it mean when a segment, in the HL7 configurator, is blue italicized ? I’m assuming it means it’s been modified but when I modified the PID#5 to be unlimited length the HL7 variant segment didn’t turn blue…?

Thanks!

[Jason]

@John – yep, just realized this, my confusion was that the inbound HL7 variant had the same 48 character limit defined but for some reason it came through with more than that… but either way, once I increased the length on my outbound variant field, it came through fine.

[Paul Bishop]

The field length limits are only applied when data is copied to an outbound field. On the inbound side it will take whatever is in the field regardless of length.

as far as the colors when changing a variant. When you first add/change a field, it will show as italicized before saving. After saving, it will not be italicized.

Added fields, segments, message types will be green, changed fields, segments, messages will be blue.

Paul Bishop
Carle Foundation Hospital
Urbana, IL

[Jason]

Thanks @Paul, that is good to know!

[Keith McLeod]

FYI you can also open up Options when in the HL7 Configurator and select “Control Field Length” and check the box to “Do not truncate any field content”. Much faster than -1 unlimited settings.

[Author]

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