My very old HL7 parser has just hit a snag as it is now getting some messages with a ZDS segment present. It was easy to fix by adding a ZDS object to my parser, but I am trying to find out what it is used for. Googling hasn't helped much. This is a sample
ZDS|PERFORM|p0001236^PATEL^ATEST^^^^^^HHB_INOP_PRSNL^^^^OTHER|20100714101800|CD:653
ZDS|TRANSCRIBE|p0001236^PATEL^ATEST^^^^^^HHB_INOP_PRSNL^^^^OTHER|20100714101800|CD:653
ZDS|SIGN|p0001236^PATEL^ATEST^^^^^^HHB_INOP_PRSNL^^^^OTHER|20100714101912|CD:653
So, I'm interested in what each field is though looking at this sample data, it seems I don't lose much by just dropping the whole segment.
Answer
In HL7, all segments that begin with the letter Z are considered to be custom and are not defined further by the HL7 standard. You will need to find out what system is responsible for generating these ZDS segments and ask the owners of that system to provide you their specification.