Clinical Cumulative Pathology Results

Clinical accommodates Cumulative Results, which, if the following rules are adhered to, can be viewed from within the Results tab of the patient file.

• Only results received in HL7 format and which include an appropriate OBX segment will be included in the cumulative results display.
• Only results in numeric format will be stored. OBX 2 must contain NM, as shown in the following examples.
• Clinical reads the first and third components of the OBX 3 element to determine which tests to group together:

  OBX|1|NM|code^testname^coding system|…

  For example: OBX|1|NM|1751-1^Albumen^LN|…(LN signifies a LOINC code).

• The second component of the OBX 3 element is displayed as the Test Name on the Cumulative Results display.
• Where different providers use different coding system numbers there will be multiple entries in the Cumulative Results table. If the code LN is used in OBX3^3 the data in OB3^1 will be regarded as a LOINC number. The LN code must not be used if an alternate coding system is used.

  For example:

  OBX|1|NM|1751-1^Albumen^LN|…will not be grouped with:

  OBX|1|NM|1234^Albumen^XY|…even though the Cumulative Results table will display both as "Albumen".

• Similarly, if different providers use the same coding system number to represent different tests, these will be grouped. If the code LN is used in OBX3^3 the data in OB3^1 will be regarded as a LOINC number. The LN code must not be used if an alternate coding system is used.

  For example, if a result arrives with:

  OBX|1|NM|1751-1^Albumen^LN|…and then later a second result arrives with:

  OBX|1|NM|1751-1^Platelets^LN|…then these results will be grouped together in the Cumulative Results Table, and the Test Name displayed will be the name of the first result received, i.e. "Albumen".

• The cumulative results are displayed in order of date of receipt.