When you create or edit your HL7 Postmasters you are asked to select the HL7 Definition (see Creating Postmasters) which that Postmaster will use. It's very easy for customers to become confused as to exactly which HL7 Definition they should choose because they don't know which versions of HL7 they might be processing, or they are receiving different versions of HL7 from different sources, etc.

 

 

To help relieve some anxiety, it might help you to know that with very, very few exceptions it doesn't matter to the HL7 Postmaster which HL7 definition you choose. ANY Definition for HL7 Version 2.xx can be used to process ANY HL7 message which is version 2.xx. So if you're unsure, or don't have an opinion either way, then we recommend that you choose the HL7 Definition for HL7 Version 2.3. Why do we recommend this? No particular reason (remember ANY one of them will work), except that probably 70-80% of all HL7 interfaces in the world today still use HL7 Version 2.3 or 2.3.1 (click here to see) which are bundled in our Default Version 2.3 definition.

 

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Q:

If it doesn't matter, why do I have to select one at all?

A:

While it has little effect on actually running the Postmaster, it might matter to YOU which HL7 Definition you choose, because your choice does have some small effects on how the program behaves when you are creating your Destinations and Data Sources. Read on below.

 

The HL7 Definition contains exactly what you probably think it does. It's got a listing of the HL7 Message Segments, Fields and Data Types relating to a particular HL7 Version or Specific Vendor's implementation. It also contains many descriptions of fields and data types, HL7 internal tables, User Annotations, etc.

 

Click to EnlargeThe HL7 Postmaster configuration program will USE the HL7 Definition selected for that Postmaster when you do things like creating destinations and entering Matching Instructions or Transformation Instructions to provide the list of HL7 segments you have to choose from in those windows. So if on your Postmaster you have selected the "Default" definition for HL7 version 2.2 then when adding or editing Matching Instructions you will only have the HL7 segments which were actually in HL7 version 2.2 to choose from in the list of segments.

 

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Q:

That sounds really serious. What if the segment I want isn't in the list?

A:

You just type in the 3 character segment name you want if it's not in the list for you to choose.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is ONE feature of the Transformation Instructions which uses the HL7 Version Definition more extensively. It deals with using HL7 Internal Tables, see Using HL7 Tables In Macros for more information.

 

Other Uses for the HL7 Definitions:

 

Reports

Click to expandExample of a simple HL7 Message Report Using Default 2.3

 

 

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