Converting Printer Output to HL7

Synopsis

abl300 [-d] device service host

Description

The abl300 program reads a printer output from the ABL 300 device attached to device and translates it to HL7. It is built using lex(1) and yacc(1). English and German scanner code for lex(1) is available and chosen at compile time.

Messages are forwarded directly to a TCP/IP address at host host and port service using the ILLP protocol.

Options

-d

Set log level to log everything down to debug level.

If device is set to `-' the standard input is used instead.

Examples

For proper operation, abl300 must be called from the radiometer program.

radiometer 300 /usr/hl7/bin/abl300 - carevuehl7 localhost /dev/ttyd0

But single abl messages can be converted to HL7 directly:

abl300 - carevuehl7 localhost < /usr/hl7/var/log/ABL/060_IOP/ABL0123

Environment

PG_CODELIB

The location of the external code databases for LOINC, LabEventInfo and units. This is rarely used, since everyone uses the names compiled into the programs.

Files

`/usr/hl7/var/log/ABL/060_IOP/REQ####'

The abl300 program writes a copy of each HL7 message as a file to a directory whose name is composed of the application and facility names. The filename is composed of the string `REQ' and the process id (pid) of the abl300 process attached to it.

`/usr/hl7/var/log/ABL/060_IOP/ACK####'

Likewise the acknowledgment HL7 message is written into the same directory with the same pid number attached to the prefix `ACK'.

`/tmp/abl300.log'

The run log file, if syslog(3) is not used instead.

Bugs

The abl300 program is not supported thoroughly any more and this documentation is incomplete. Bugs may be introduced as the ProtoGen system evolves without this program to be further tested.

If the transport of the HL7 message to the destination address fails, the message is lost. No retry is made. Should use a message file written to a spool directory instead.

The application name (`ABL') and the facility name (`060_IOP') are chosen at compile time. This is certainly wrong because the abl300 program might well be used for different facilities.

The process id is certainly a bad choice for numbering files, because process ids will repeat and thus do not reflect the order in time of the messages.

Diagnostics

The `ACK####' message file will contain error messages from the destination of the ORU HL7 messages.

See Also

syslog(3), section Accepting Messages From a Serial Line, section Resolving a Patient ID, section Resolving an Operator ID, section An ASTM to HL7 Gateway for the ABL 500.