HL7 ADT_A52 Cancel Leave of Absence for a Patient

The planned or recorded leave of absence should be undone.
HL7 message structure ADT_A52 groups and segments from HL7 v2.5.1 Hide structure

These are the generated groups and segments for the version selected at the top of the page. The article explains the workflow, and this panel follows the chosen HL7 version.

Message Structure

SegmentNameRequiredRepeatable
MSH
 Message Header Yes No
SFT
 Software Segment No Yes
EVN
 Event Type Yes No
PID
 Patient Identification Yes No
PD1
 Patient Additional Demographic No No
PV1
 Patient Visit Yes No
PV2
 Patient Visit - Additional Information No No

ADT_A52 cancels an earlier A21 leave-of-absence event. It is used when the LOA was entered in error or the decision to put the patient on leave was reversed.

The patient is still an inpatient visit. A52 tells receivers to remove the temporary-absence state and resume normal patient activity handling as appropriate.

A small A52 example

MSH|^~\&|ADT|CITYHOSP|EHR|CITYHOSP|20260715162500||ADT^A52^ADT_A52|ADT520001|P|2.5.1 EVN|A52|20260715162400||||20260715162300 PID|1||123456^^^CITYHOSP^MR||Smith^Jane^Anne^^Ms^^L||19800314|F PV1|1|I|WARD1^101^1^CITYHOSP^^BED||||12345^Ng^Grace|||||||||||VN000345^^^CITYHOSP^VN

What systems do with it

The sender is usually the PAS/EHR. Receivers clear pending or active LOA state, resume inpatient tasks that had been paused, and make sure the patient no longer appears absent from the facility because of the cancelled A21.

How to read the structure

The structure is compact: MSH, EVN, PID, optional PD1, required PV1, and optional PV2. EVN-6 is useful when the cancellation happened at a different time from message entry.

Implementation traps

Make sure A52 reverses only the LOA state. It should not admit the patient again, transfer the patient, or create a duplicate visit. If the receiver never accepted the original A21, A52 should still leave a clear audit trail.

Reference notes

The HL7 v2+ ADT_A52 page describes cancellation of an A21 leave-of-absence event and recommends EVN-6 for the actual cancellation time.