This message supports unsolicited population or location-based surveillance reporting to a central repository where the accession / visit may contain references to multiple patients, multiple specimens, non-patient specimens, and multiple orders per specimen.
This message structure represents the way most submissions to veterinary laboratories occur. There is a multi-tier hierarchy in which a single individual (for example, a veterinarian or an owner of a production facility) submits one or more specimen samples from one or more animals or non-living entity, such as environmental specimens or feed. This grouped submission of specimens from multiple animal 'patients' is usually referred to as an 'accession' which can be considered analogous to a 'visit' in the veterinary laboratory context. This is what accounts for the unusual structure where the PV1 segment precedes a repeatable ACCESSION_DETAIL group.
Since specimens can originate from non-patients the PATIENT group is optional. This allows for specimens that are both associated with patients as well as those associated with non-patients to be included under the same accession (visit). Each specimen may have one or more orders assigned, each of which may have one or more individual results.
The OBX segment at the visit level provides the reason for submission. The repeatable PRT segment at the visit level represents the person(s) or organization submitting the request and other interested parties and locations who (that) play a role in the disposition of the accession/visit.
The NK1 segment contains owner and/or responsible party information for the patient and/or specimen.
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