Patent ID: 8861523

Claim:
A method of processing messages in a healthcare communication network, the method comprising: receiving a message within a healthcare communication network in a HL7 format; parsing the received message to determine values for a set of message fields comprising parameters that characterize the received message; determining a content payload of the received message; applying a set of conditional rules to the message field values and determined content payload to determine a healthcare communication network destination to which the received message should be directed, wherein applying the set of conditional rules to the message field values comprises: determining whether the received message contains a sufficient set of message field values to allow the network destination to be determined through the application of the set of conditional rules; and in response to determining that the received message does not contain a sufficient set of message field values to allow the network destination to be determined: populating any deficient message field values with default values; and applying the set of conditional rules to a complete set of message field values, wherein the complete set comprises the received message field values and the default values; and directing the received message to the determined healthcare communication network destination.