Some legacy systems have historical size limits on the strings they can transmit (for example 64K). In this case the HL7 message will include a DSC (continuation) segment. The continuation.vmd recognizes DSC segments. This allows you to parse DSC segments and stitch them together to form a single HL7 message.

How to use the continuation.vmd:

• Parse HL7 messages using the continuation.vmd
• Identify any partial messages received (first part of message)
  • Save the ContinuationId (Key)
  • Save the raw Message data
• Use the ContinuationId to recognize the later part(s) of the message
• Perform the necessary processing to stitch the parts together to create a complete HL7 message

See Continuation Message for a worked example for two-part messages.