HL7 Beginner’s Perspective - Day 3 of Training

October 10th, 2006 by Elizabeth Armenta

3 Votes | Average: 3.33 out of 5 (3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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Bringing it into the real world - HL7 standards

Day three of HL7 training finished up the detailed technical explanations of HL7; however, I was relieved to find that my brain could take a respite as we moved on to real world applications of HL7 and how the technology is utilized.

We touched on log files and why they are important, message types and how they are created differently (i.e. ADT, orders, financial, etc.), and message acknowledgements and the role they play in HL7 standards. Dave also stressed different communication methods and setups available to prevent or address HL7 integration issues, such as would be encountered in normal hospital environments. Through this session I learned:

Bandwidth is different than latency and, in HL7, latency is the most important consideration when determining what drives the speed of an interface
Each transaction has two log files – one inbound and one outbound – stored in the import and export “boxes”, that can be used to view all messages
Master files allow you to keep databases up to date and to move any kind of file from one system to another, although these types of interfaces are surprisingly rare
Orders are very different from ADT messages, which are also very different from queries or accounting/billing data (a separate entity entirely from HL7)
Enhanced mode acknowledgements are used to communicate problems or errors, and are different from regular message acknowledgements that are used to confirm receipt or status

I saw many “light bulb” moments where attendees suddenly understood the material and knew how to apply it to their jobs. Success!