V34 Deployment Set For This PM

Our automated download creator and validator is done. All of our downloads have been created and validated. We are on schedule to update our on-line etail site this evening.

Antivirus (AV) False Positives

Our windows products come with installers, as it expected.

We use Nullsoft  Scriptable Install System (NSIS) to create our installers (see http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page for details).

Sometimes Antivirus software, such as Norton AV (now branded as Symantec) incorrectly flag our installers as containing viruses.

In order to try to keep current and keep ahead of Antivirus (AV) false positives, we upgraded to the latest version of NSIS this year, which should make for better Windows 10 support and a lower chance of false flagging by AV software.

When we want to assess the status of our installers, we use this very hand (and free) site: https://www.virustotal.com/

V34 Deployment Delayed Until Monday, October 10, 2016

Last year was the first IC10-based version and we had to dramatically change our venerable processes to put out the new product line. Thus we were weeks later than we would have liked and the process was largely manual.

This year we are automating the process to improve quality and consistency. We underestimated the level of effort required and so were not able to make yesterday's deadline. We have decided to take the entire weekend in order to make sure that everything is right, so we are now expecting to have our v34 products on-line for sale by first thing Monday morning.

V34 32-bit PHP Version: Entry Point Now "mhdrg1_v34"

This applies ONLY to our 32 bit Linux PHP Module

In our 32 bit Linux environment there is apparently only one PHP name space for modules. Our ICD10-based DRG Assignment Engine (DAE) only handles one version while our ICD9-based version handled previous versions.

This means while our ICD9-based PHP module had a single entry point, mhdrg(), our ICD10-based PHP needs a unique entry point for every version. We had hoped to have a single entry point, mhdrg1(), but that won't work. So instead we will have an entry point named for the version starting with v34: mhdrg1_{ver}(). So the entry point for v34 PHP is mhdrg1_v34, like this:

<?php
    # tryit.php (c) 2002 M+H Consulting, LLC MH DRG test script

    printf("tryit.php (c) 2002-2016 M+H Consulting, LLC: MH DRG test script");
    $ver = "v34p";

    if (!extension_loaded('phpdrgv34')) {
    printf("<h1>ERROR</h1><p>phpdrgv34 is not loaded...</p>");
        /* exit; -- comment out because we want to see the error */
    }

    # call grouper, store results in $retval
    $retval = mhdrg1_v34(
        $ver,            # which DRG version you want
    "{wherever-you-keep them}",    # path to masks files
        "1",            # discharge status */
    "55",            # patient age on admission */
    "2",            # patient sex (1=male, 2=female) */
    # ICD DX codes */
    "D352   YE2740  NN390   YE871   NF05    NR630   NR110   YR0602  YD649    ",
    # ICD procedure codes */
    "0GB00ZZ0YUY47Z02HR30Z0L8S3ZZ0P5N0ZZ0RJP0ZZ",
    8,            # length of each ICD DX code */
    7,               # length of each ICD procedure code */
    "Y",            # are there POA indicators?
    "n"            # is this case exempt?
    );

    # if there was an error, alert the user
    if ($retval == '') {
    $error = errdesc();
        print("Error: $error<br>");
        exit;
    }

    # show the raw return value
    printf("Raw return value from mhdrg1_v34:<br>%s<br><br>",$retval);

    # deconstruct return from mhdrg1_v34()
    list($rc,$mdc,$drg,$ovn,$weight,$mean,$porm,$desc) = explode("^",$retval,-1);
    print("Deconstructed return value from mhdrg1_v34:<br>");
    print("rc=$rc, mdc=$mdc, drg=$drg, ovn=$ovn, weight=");
    print("$weight, mean=$mean, porm=$porm<br>desc=$desc<br>");
    print(" EXPECTED: RC: 0 MDC: 10 DRG: 614<br>");
    exit;
   
    ?>

In order to pass validation with the command-line PHP, we had to force the loading of v34 module, like this:

php5 -dextension=phpdrgv34.so -f tryit.php

V34 Windows Products Are Done

As of end-of-day yesterday, our Windows v34 products passed validation, so we are packaging them up today and updating our on-line store.

V34 Linux Products Are Done

As of last night our 64 bit and 32 bit Linux v34 products all passed validation.

Today we expect to finish with our Windows v34 products and we hope that tonight or early tomorrow our web site and on-line store will be updated to offer both Linux and Windows products for sale.

V34 Initial Implmentation Is Done

We have a DRG Assignment Engine (DAE) which supports v34, the version which was released three days ago. Last night we completed our initial implementation (Linux) and validated it with DRGFilt10 on the CMS data set in fixed-width mode, in CSV mode and in CGI mode.

Now we are hard at work creating versions of our products based on this DAE. We expect to have them for sale by the end of today (3-Oct-2016) or sometime tomorrow at the latest, barred any technical difficulties.

While we code off of the CMS pseudo-code logic definition, we validate against their data set. We are a bit perturbed about having to deviate from the logic version in the following ways in order to correctly group their data set:

• relax the Invalid Sex check for MDC 25 and MDC 8
• assume a Principal Dx is invalid if there is no MDC and no Dx category

However, since we can group their data set correctly, we are moving on with our process. If you have an interesting test cases which address the above topics, or any comments on them, please submit them below.