HL7 ABS Abstract
HL7 field reference ABS fields from HL7 v2.5.1 Show fields
These are the generated fields for the version selected at the top of the page. The document stays the same, but the reference panel follows that version.
Fields
| Field | Name | Required | Repeatable | Type | Table |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABS.1 | Discharge Care Provider | No | No | XCN | 0010 |
| ABS.2 | Transfer Medical Service Code | No | No | CE | 0069 |
| ABS.3 | Severity of Illness Code | No | No | CE | 0421 |
| ABS.4 | Date/Time of Attestation | No | No | TS | |
| ABS.5 | Attested By | No | No | XCN | |
| ABS.6 | Triage Code | No | No | CE | 0422 |
| ABS.7 | Abstract Completion Date/Time | No | No | TS | |
| ABS.8 | Abstracted By | No | No | XCN | |
| ABS.9 | Case Category Code | No | No | CE | 0423 |
| ABS.10 | Caesarian Section Indicator | No | No | ID | 0136 |
| ABS.11 | Gestation Category Code | No | No | CE | 0424 |
| ABS.12 | Gestation Period - Weeks | No | No | NM | |
| ABS.13 | Newborn Code | No | No | CE | 0425 |
| ABS.14 | Stillborn Indicator | No | No | ID | 0136 |
ABS is the HL7 Abstract segment. This segment was created to communicate patient abstract information used for billing and reimbursement purposes. "Abstract" is a condensed form of medical history created for analysis, care planning, etc.
Billing and reimbursement segments tend to be driven by local business rules, so the safest habit is to map only the fields the receiving profile actually expects.
The v2.5.1 structures show ABS in BAR_P05 (Update account). That tells you where it can appear, but the local implementation guide still decides which optional fields are meaningful.
These are good fields to test in HL7 Soup Web before mapping, because billing feeds often fail on small code, identifier, or quantity assumptions. In Integration Soup, I would keep the local code mapping visible rather than burying it in a one-off transform.
So this page stays intentionally practical: what each field is for, what shape the generated v2.5.1 data gives it, and where I would be careful before mapping it.
ABS-1 identifies the provider associated with discharge care in the abstract. Keep the provider identifier, assigning authority, and name components together. A display name alone may be enough for a report, but it is not enough for a billing or audit system that has to match the provider.
ABS-2 carries the medical service involved in a transfer or discharge abstract. This is usually a local or administrative service line, not a free-text description of the patient's diagnosis. Use the code set the reimbursement or reporting receiver expects.
ABS-3 is a severity ranking used by the abstracting/reporting workflow. It is not a diagnosis code and it should not be invented from a casual reading of the chart. If it feeds case mix, reimbursement, or reporting, the source and code set need to be defensible.
ABS-4 records when the abstract was attested, and ABS-5 identifies who attested it. This is about the abstracting/sign-off workflow, not the discharge event itself.
Preserve the attester as an XCN value where possible. If the attestation has legal, billing, or quality-reporting consequences, a name string without a stable identifier is a weak audit trail.
ABS-6 carries a triage category for the abstract when the receiving program needs it. Triage systems are local and sometimes jurisdiction-specific, so do not map an emergency department label into this field unless the abstract profile says exactly which code set to use.
ABS-7 is when the abstracting work was completed, and ABS-8 is the person who completed it. These are operational audit fields. They can be very different from the clinical event dates in PV1, DG1, PR1, or other segments.
If the receiving side uses abstractor productivity, audit, or correction workflows, keep these values stable on resend. Recomputing the completion timestamp during every export makes later reconciliation harder.
ABS-9 classifies the case for the abstracting or reimbursement program. It is useful only when the receiver recognizes the category. Do not use it as a spare diagnosis, service, or funding field; those concepts have their own places elsewhere in the message.
ABS-10 says whether a caesarian section was involved. ABS-11 and ABS-12 describe gestation category and gestation period in weeks. ABS-13 and ABS-14 cover newborn and stillborn indicators. These fields belong to maternity/newborn abstracting and should usually stay empty outside that context.
The gestation period in ABS-12 is a numeric count of weeks, so do not mix it with a coded gestation category. For sensitive indicators such as stillborn status, send only values that come from an authoritative source and match the receiver's reporting rules.