3M DRG Interface troubleshooting

Hoscare System Technical Support Notes

3M DRG Interface troubleshooting

Purpose

Hoscare has an interactive grouping interface to third party groupers. This document assists in troubleshooting the interface

Hoscare supports interactive grouping by the use of the 3 rd

party products supplied by 3M for grouping. These products are commonly referred to as groupers.

The product must be installed correctly onto the desktop PC that also has access to Hoscare.

This will then allow grouping to be done within Hoscare on that screen. If multiple screens require the ability to group, then multiple copies of the grouper will need to be installed. One per desktop. For licensing considerations, contact the grouper’s author.

The grouping product must then be “activated” for use by Hoscare by going into System à

Install Grouper. This must be done once per desktop that wishes to group, and can be repeated as often as required without causing any damage.

Desktop requirements:

As these products operate independently from Hoscare, the interface mechanism waits a preset period of time before assuming that the grouper has done it’s job. That setting is currently five seconds, which most well configured desktop PC’s, should be able to handle.

Hoscare may generate error messages if the grouping product either does not complete or cannot group correctly. Basically there are two errors:

1. Unable to read batch returned from ARDRG grouper. This means that no data arrived back into Hoscare after the 2 second wait. This could be because the grouper was too slow, or perhaps did not operate, or the data batch did not transfer back.

2. Invalid grouping. Grouper return code is xx. In this case the batch did come back, but it contained a flag saying the grouping failed for some reason. The returned error code number is displayed and the user can ask the grouper’s author for it's meaning.

No error indicates that the grouping proceeded correctly. The resulting DRG can be viewed by pressing the function key to Display DRG.

These notes assist the user in determining the cause of errors.

When the function key to Derive DRG is pressed, it fires off a series of steps that occur sequentially. Each step must complete correctly in order for grouping to occur, and most steps require the correct & timely completion of the previous step to avoid errors. For various technical reasons due to the way in which Windows operates, it is not always possible to check that a step has completed before initiating the next step. We simply assume it did. Thus if a step were to fail, or not function; the end result would be one of the error messages noted above.

Fortunately, due to the modular nature of Hoscare, it is possible to operate each of the steps manually to determine where the problem might occur. To do this, log on to the Hoscare

System as usual and bring up an admission to the point where you would press the function key to derive the DRG. Instead of deriving the DRG, perform each of the following steps in turn, by typing in a slash (/) followed by the process name, and pressing <Enter>. (One slash is needed for each procedure name.)

Copyright © 2008 Matash Computer Systems

DRG Interface Troubleshooting.doc

Matash Australia Pty Ltd

Page 1 of 2

Hoscare System

Process Name Action

Technical Support Notes

Comment

DELETE.DOS.BATCH

Deletes the last batch file from within the grouper on your PC.

The file BATCH.OUT should disappear from your grouper’s directory within Windows Explorer.

DERIVE.BATCH

BATCH.TO.DOS

Causes the data to be generated within Hoscare.

Transfers the data batch file to the grouper.

If you get to a TCL prompt and type in:

CT HMCONTROL BATCH.IN you should see data.

The file BATCH.IN should appear in your grouper’s directory within

Windows Explorer.

ARDRG

Runs the actual grouper itself as a command line.

The command line itself (which can be manually typed in at a

Dos/Command prompt in the

Grouper’s directory) is:

3MCGS -i BATCH.IN -it

TEMPIN.DIC -u BATCH.OUT -ut

TEMPOUT.DIC -g 04052 –cv 060 w

The file BATCH.OUT should appear your grouper’s directory within Windows Explorer.

If you get to a TCL prompt and type in:

BATCH.FROM.DOS

Transfers the file

BATCH.OUT to Hoscare. CT HMCONTROL BATCH.OUT you should see data.

If the batch does not exist, an error is created. If the batch exists but

EXTRACT.BATCH

Opens and extracts data from the BATCH.OUT data file. the error flag within it does not indicate success, an error is generated.

The most likely cause of a failed grouping is that the grouper step itself (ARDRG) did not complete in 5 seconds. Thus the file BATCH.OUT would not have been available to transfer back, eventually leading to the error from EXTRACT.BATCH.

By performing each of the steps in turn, and checking for the existence of files using Windows

Explorer, you should be able to determine which step(s) are working, and which are failing.

Also keep an eye out for error messages. Once that is known, the ultimate cause can be worked out.

Copyright © 2008 Matash Computer Systems

DRG Interface Troubleshooting.doc

Matash Australia Pty Ltd

Page 2 of 2