DRGFilt10 New Control File Format, part 3

Today we validated group handling in our new DRGFilt Control File; the group name is given in square brackets and every configuration item until the next group is part of the current group.

DRGFilt10 now only processes the configuration information in the active group. The default active group is "drgfilt".  You can either specify an active group on the command line or let the default active group be used.

Therefore the new DRGFilt10 syntax is this:

drgfilt10 {ini-file-name} [group-name]

For example, we are validating with a control file called "v33.ini". That control file defines several jobs:

• "fixed" defines the job to process the standard CMS test data set
• "csv" defines the job to process the CSV we created from the CMS file
• "csv-validate" defines the job which creates output for our validator

When we want to run the job to process the standard CMS test data set, we run this command:

drgfilt10 v33.ini fixed < TESTDB > output.fixed 

We choose to use the Unix-style filter feature of DRGFilt, but the new control file allows us to specify an input file, an output file, or both or neither.

Here is a sample DRGFilt control file which documents all the currently supported features:

; new format DRGFilt control file, with different groups for different purposes

;---------------
; this group is to process the standard fixed-width input file from CMS
;---------------
[fixed]
format = fixed          ; input file format
verbose = 0             ; no debugging information
blip = 1000             ; give progress report every 1,000 records
batchver = 33           ; assign version 33 DRGs to this batch
maskdir = .             ; directory in which to find drgmasks.v33

; fixed-width input variables: name = length@offset
age =   3@0
sex = 1@3
ds =  2@4
dxl=8           ; dx length does not require an offset
poa= 7
dx = 200@23
sgl=7@0         ; pr length, offset is optional & ignored
surg= 175@223
exmp = 1@6
; -----
; these are already present from the CMS grouper:
; you could overwrite the incoming values if you wanted to
; drg = 3@603
; mdc = 2@600
; rc = 2@598
; -----

; these are written out by DRGFilt
rc  = 2@1760
mdc = 2@1762
drg = 3@1764

;---------------
; this group is to validate date-handling of a CSV
;---------------
[csv-adt]
format = csv (,)        ; separator character is in parens
base = 0                ; field indices are zero-based, as opposed to 1-based, etc
headers = 1             ; 1=want column headers, 0=no headers
crlf = 0                ; type of end-of-line: 0=crlf (DOS), 1=lf (Unix)
blip = 1000             ; give progress report every 1,000 records
maskdir = .             ; directory in which to find drgmasks.v33
batchver = 33           ; the DRG version to apply to this entire batch
infile = adt.csv        ; input file name
outfile = x.csv         ; output file name
;outfile = blank file.csv
verbose = 1             ; give debugging output

; input variables: name = index
inid = 0
bdt =  1
sex = 2
exmp = 3
ds =  4
; these there keywords are allowed to have lists as parameters.
; lists can contain single entries, ranges, or both. for example
; 1,2,7-22,50
dx = 5-29
poa = 30-54
surg= 55-79
adt = 80
; calcver gives the index of a field to be used as the date from which
; we calculate the appropriate DRG version. If any record's calculated
; DRG version does not match the batchver, we skip that record
calcver = 80            ; NOTE: same index as "adt" because we are using the same field

; these are written out by DRGFilt
outid = 0               ; patient ID from input, whatever inid pointed to
rc  = 1
mdc = 2
drg = 3
desc = 4
weight = 5
morp = 6
outver = 7

;---------------
; this group is to process the CSV we created from the standard fixed-width input file from CMS
;---------------
[csv]
format = csv (,) ; separator character is in parens
base = 0 ; indices are zero-based
;base = 1 ; indices are one-based
headers = 1 ; 1=want column headers, 0=no headers
crlf = 0 ; type of end-of-line: either crlf or lf
blip = 1000
batchver = 33
maskdir = .
infile = testdbv33.csv
outfile = testdb.out.csv

; input variables: name = index
inid = 0
age =  1
sex = 2
exmp = 3
ds =  4
dx = 5-29
poa = 30-54
surg= 55-79

; these are written out by DRGFilt
outid = 0 ; patient ID from input
rc  = 1
mdc = 2
drg = 3
desc = 4
weight = 5
morp = 6
outver = 7

;---------------
; this group is to process the CSV we created from the standard fixed-width input file from CMS
;---------------
[csv-validate]
format = csv (,) ; separator character is in parens
base = 0 ; indices are zero-based
;base = 1 ; indices are one-based
headers = 0 ; 1=want column headers, 0=no headers
crlf = 0 ; type of end-of-line: either crlf or lf
blip = 1000
maskdir = .
batchver = 33
infile = testdbv33.csv
outfile = testdb.validate.csv
verbose = 1

; input variables: name = index
inid = 0
age =  1
sex = 2
exmp = 3
ds =  4
dx = 5-29
poa = 30-54
surg= 55-79

; these are written out by DRGFilt
outid = 0 ; patient ID from input
drg = 1

; eof