Process OBX before TXA

[Josh Stanek]

Hello,

What I need to do is set the TXA.17 field to a certain string based on a value in the OBX.5 [repetitive] field.  When testing my code, what looks to be happening is that I’m able to find the OBX.5 value, but only AFTER it processes thru the TXA segment.  Therefore, when I put the message back together, the TXA.17 isn’t changed correctly.

What I need to do is somehow process thru the OBX segment prior to the TXA.  Is this possible within a single tcl-proc?  If so, how?

Thanks,

Josh

Topic

[Jeff Dinsmore]

You have a few options.

1) you can loop through the message twice – once to get the OBX info you need, then a second time to make changes to the TXA.

2) you can do something similar to #1, but use your regexp and/or string tools to find the OBX(s) in the message string, then loop through the message making the required TXA changes.

3) Or, build a library of Tcl procs to read and write HL7 messages (my personal favorite). That way, you can parse the message, direct-access the OBX info you need for your decision, then write required changes directly to the TXA. When you’re done, encode the modified message and send it on its way.

Jeff Dinsmore
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

[Author]

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