Choosing the Correct NPR Segment

A friend from Providence Healthcare Toronto recently wanted to know how to tell the difference between parent & child segments when reading MEDITECH Data Definitions.

Let’s consider 3 common Radiology Order fields from Client Server 5.6:

- accession.number $(R)RO[ro]ASN|0
- cc doc $(R)RO[ro]CD[cd]|0
- order status $(R)RO[ro]|2

So ... how can we determine if these 3 fields are in the same segment? It comes down to subscripts. Subscripts are the values that live between the pairs of brackets ([ro] for example). If there is one set of brackets, and the subscripts are the same, then we can assume that the segment is the same. Applying that rule to the definitions above, we can ascertain that accession.number and status are in the same segment...

- accession.number $(R)RO[ro]ASN|0
- status $(R)RO[ro]|2

... because they only have 1 set of brackets and subscript(s) are the same.

The cc doctor is in the child segment because both physical addresses have the same base address in common: $(R)RO[ro]; yet the address has another set of brackets (subscript) which define the child segment.

- cc doc $(R)RO[ro]CD[cd]|0

So ... why isn't accession.number ($(R)RO[ro]ASN) in a separate segment than status ($(R)RO[ro])? These two structures share the same physical address and subscripts. The only difference is the constant. I think of a constant as a way to keep the base file clean; without using more subscripts. This makes the data easier to access in the NPR Report Writer.

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