ACK Management Framework, published by FO. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 0.1.9 built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/frankoemig/ack-ig/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

ACK Codes

How to deal with ACK codes?

In v2.x defined Codes

What codes are currently defined?

Code	Description	Follow-up
AA	message is accepted and processed, perhaps some minor issues, but no major errors	none
AE	message contains minor errors and is at least partially processed	resubmit erroneous data in a new or updated message
AR	message contains major errors and is not processed	The errors must be fixed and the complete message has be to resent.

Distinction of Soft and Hard Errors

An important aspect is the distinction into soft and hard errors. In other words, what is an error that can be corrected and may or may not require a resubmission? And which error is so severe that the message cannot be processed? The two identified options provide a different view onto that topic.

Scenarios …

… with regard to what kind of acknowledgement is sent will certainly vary …

… with complex messages

A complex message will try to address several aspects in general. For example, an ADT admission message will

• register the patient, ie. create or update the patient record
• create a new admission
• create or update
  • insurance data
  • diagnosis data
  • additional observations
  • …

Option 1

This option tries to process as much as possible and keeps that information stored. The sender can take the most important details from the acknowledgement code.

Code	Description	Follow-up Activities	Precondition
AA	The message is accepted and processed, the record with all details has been created. No major errors are discovered.	none
AE	The message contains errors, also on "important data" with regard to subsequent aspects. It is partially processed so that the main record has been created.	The erroneous data has to be resubmitted in more specialised messages, eg. an update to diagnosis etc.	Dedicated errors must be defined so that it is clear which part is not accepted. It is clear that some data has been stored.
AR	The message contains major errors and is not processed	The errors must be fixed and the complete message has be to resent.

Detailed Error Indication

How are soft and hard errors classified for option 1?

Type	Code	AA	AE	AR	Comment
infos	I	x	x	x	infos may appear in every response
warning	W	x	x	x	same for warnings
soft error	E	a)	x	x	soft errors may not prevent from (partial) successful processing of the message
hard error	E	-	b)	x	a hard error must be present on a rejection, but it can be accepted in a partial processing. However, that must be corrected.

a) Small/minor errors can be issued even if the message returns an "AA". But hard errors are not allowed.

b) It is debatable whether hard errors will lead to a partial processing of a message ("AE"), or a total rejection ("AR"). Both has some arguments.

Option 2

Alternatively, even with minor issues on substantive content the message can be rejected ("AR"). Then the list of warnings and errors must be checked to identify what needs correction.

Code	Description	Follow-up	Precondition
AA	message accepted, critical data accepted	.. on minor issues if needed
AE	Only minor issues that do not affect important data, but record is NOT created.
AR	Issues on important data lead to reject the message, again no record created.	All errors must be corrected and the message has to be resent.

Detailed Error Indication

How are soft and hard errors classified for option 1?

Type	Code	AA	AE	AR	Comment
infos	I	x	x	x	infos may appear in every response
warning	W	x	x	x	same for warnings
soft error	E	-	x	x	soft errors that prevent from (partial) successful processing of the message
hard error	E	-	-	x	a hard error must be present on a rejection. However, such a message must be corrected.

… with simple messages

A simple message will try to address only one specific aspect. Therefore, such a message is much smaller, and easier to process. Consequently, responses can be more fine tuned. Taking the above example, different messages for each aspect would be created and sent.

Code	Description	Follow-up Activities
AA	The message is accepted and processed, no major errors	none
AE	The message contains minor errors and is partially processed. This will probably not happen because the message is finegrained and every aspect is declared important.	resubmit erroneous data in a new message
AR	The message contains major errors and is not processed.	The errors must be fixed and the complete message has be to resent.