Patient name as text

[PhilippeQuertemont]

We have processed all sample from the test server to make sure all is ok and I discoveved some casse with the patient name expressed as text and not the usual way using given & family

"name":[
{
"given": ["TEST INFORMA"],
"family": "TEST"}
],

Is it valid aswel?

"name":[
{"text": "PATIENTNAME2,PATIENT2"}
]

Thanks

[bdc-ehealth]

@PhilippeQuertemont ,

No Philippe, this is not valid. The lab must be able to provide the name in the other way. We have some tests for that. As additional information, the text may be provided, but not as the only information.

[costateixeira]

Not sure I understand the question Are you asking if this is invalid? "name":[ {"text": "PATIENTNAME2,PATIENT2"} ]

I didn't find the current build nor any constraints on this - why would this be invalid for lab?

[bdc-ehealth]

@PhilippeQuertemont ,

I refer to testcase 1D. If according to the comments of @costateixeira this is not forbidden, it is at least undesirable from the perspective of the receiving software (they can confirm this in an HL7 workgroup), because in the absence of the name and/or given name field, they will be forced to use the SSIN for identification.

[PhilippeQuertemont]

Ok, thanks.
In our software (and probably other) name first name are mandatory so with only one field , we have to split and this can lead to error.

Can we assume that

• the name and first name are separated with a comma
• that first part is last name and second part is the first name or probably labs are allowed to put anything?

[bdc-ehealth]

@PhilippeQuertemont ,

This is exactly what I meant, Philippe, the text field can only contain extra, supplementary information. So if a patient does not have any name ( and (optionally) given name), there are no rules to process the text field, and if you need name + given name, you will have to consult the National Register using the SSIN. Using text for anything other than non-identifying information looks like a very bad idea to me.

[costateixeira]

Can we assume that

• the name and first name are separated with a comma
• that first part is last name and second part is the first name or probably labs are allowed to put anything?

To clarify: .text is the text representation of the name. So, it can be "Family, Given" or "Given Family", or "FAMILY Given" or "Given Given Family F Family" or "Given G Family Family"... there are no rules or expectations on that except it being the name of the patient somehow. So, you cannot assume any structure there. If you declare that given and family are required to your system, and if you receive such a message, you can either reject or adopt some convention to make it work somehow, but my expectation and experience is there's no single rule that works well.

[PhilippeQuertemont]

Ok clear. text is just extra information, so the lab should include given & family for the message to be correctly processed. Strange that some lab don't use them for such a basic data. Many thanks.

[AlexisVZ-MDS]

@PhilippeQuertemont or @bdc-ehealth I checked al files avaialable for 1D, but could find the one referred here (containing 'PATIENTNAME2'), Can you give me the exact ID or Sender Tenant of this testfile ? So I can test it on our side. Thanks !

[PhilippeQuertemont]

@AlexisVZ-MDS, It is from Vivalia (ID 1984)

[AlexisVZ-MDS]

@PhilippeQuertemont Thx ! But I could not find ID 1984 Under testcase 1D (only Vivalia I see is 1993, which seems not to have that problem).

Neither under testcases 1E1 and 1E3 (which are also about patient identification). Under which testcase is it ? Or maybe it is easier for you to just upload the file here ?

[PhilippeQuertemont]

@AlexisVZ-MDS See test case 8, page 3 - Vivalia. 8-1984-Vivalia.json

[AlexisVZ-MDS]

@PhilippeQuertemont Thx ! Successfully imported in Medispring, and automatically assigned to existing patient. But unable to create patient if patient does not exist yet (should be rare case, but source of support calls nevertheless)

@bdc-ehealth pleasee clarify/confirm if providing name with just "text" and no "family" or "given" is valid or not.

• IMHO it should not be valid, and the test sent by Vivalia should have been rejected, and LIS providers and labs have to forced to correct this.
• If this remains valid (for now), we could enhance our code to lookup family & given name using ConsultRN to create the patient. But even then, the use of ConsultRN will only be possible by doctors, while in group pratices / medical houses, the manual assignation (of lab reports that could not be automatically assigned) is often delegated to administrative collaborators. So we would also have to implement a manual validation of the family & given name, based on the name received in "text"... which of course we want to avoid !