Patient visit

PV1 describes a patient visit or encounter - the location, attending physician, admission type, hospital service, financial class, and admission/discharge dates. It appears in virtually every ADT message and most order and result messages.

Parse the message and access the PV1 segment directly:

from zato.hl7v2 import HL7Message

msg = HL7Message.parse(raw_data)

location = msg.pv1.assigned_patient_location
ward = location.point_of_care
room = location.room

service = msg.pv1.hospital_service

Use semantic Python names instead of positional notation:

from zato.hl7v2.v2_9 import PV1, CWE

pv1 = PV1()
# Instead of PV1.2, use:
pv1.patient_class = CWE(identifier='I')

# Instead of PV1.3, use:
pv1.assigned_patient_location.point_of_care = 'ICU'
pv1.assigned_patient_location.room = '301'

The attending_doctor field uses the XCN (extended composite name) datatype:

from zato.hl7v2.v2_9 import PV1, XCN

pv1 = PV1()
pv1.attending_doctor = XCN(
    person_identifier='12345',
    family_name='Smith',
    given_name='John',
    suffix='MD'
)

Zato connects to any system that speaks HL7v2 over MLLP or FHIR over REST. This includes Epic, Cerner, Meditech, Allscripts, and other EHR platforms.

Yes, Zato has built-in MLLP support for sending and receiving HL7v2 messages. MLLP channels handle the framing protocol automatically.

Zato supports HL7 v2.9, which is backward compatible with earlier versions including v2.3, v2.5, and v2.7. Standard segments and datatypes are available as typed Python classes.

Yes. Zato handles both HL7v2 and FHIR natively, so you can parse v2 messages and build FHIR resources with IG-specific extensions in the same service. Typed Python classes are available for both protocols, including extensions from US Core, UK Core, Da Vinci, and other Implementation Guides.