DSR^Q03 — Display Response

Response to a display query (DSR^Q01) that returns a pre-laid-out textual payload: ASCII table, printable report, listing. Essential for legacy mainframe terminals and raw paper outputs when you don't want to depend on a client-side rendering engine.

Purpose

DSR^Q03 answers a DSR^Q01 (Display Query, request) or an Original-Mode Query Q*1. The idea is to return a ready-to-print/display payload, whereas RSP^K* returns PID/OBX segments the client has to re-render. Heavily used in 1990–2005 HIS, still alive in lab and radiology portals where the EHR has no embedded viewer.

Segment structure

Structure DSR_Q03: MSH, MSA, [ERR], QRD, [QRF], { DSP } (1..* lines), [DSC].

• MSA-1 — Acknowledgment Code: AA (Accept), AE (Error), AR (Reject).
• QRD — Original Query Definition: echoes request parameters.
• DSP-1 — Set ID (line number).
• DSP-2 — Display Level (hierarchical grouping).
• DSP-3 — Data Line: line content (256 chars max in v2.5.1).
• DSP-4 — Logical Break Point.
• DSP-5 — Result ID.
• DSC — Continuation Pointer (pagination if DSR split into fragments).

Real-world example

DSR response to a patient CBC query — pre-formatted listing:

MSH|^~\&|LIS|LAB01|EHR|HOSP01|20260519152000||DSR^Q03^DSR_Q03|DSRQ03001|P|2.5.1|||AL|NE
MSA|AA|QRYQ01001
QRD|20260519152000|R|I|QRY-LAB-2026-051901|||10^RD|MR300405^^^HOSP^MR|VXI|RES
DSP|1||CBC LISTING — Patient LAURENT P. (MR300405)
DSP|2||--------------------------------------------------------
DSP|3||Test             Value      Unit        Range
DSP|4||Hb               13.1       g/dL        13.0-17.0
DSP|5||RBC              4.52       T/L         4.30-5.90
DSP|6||MCV              92         fL          80-100
DSP|7||WBC              7.8        G/L         4.0-10.0
DSP|8||Platelets        265        G/L         150-400
DSP|9||--------------------------------------------------------
DSP|10||Status: VALID | Date: 2026-05-19 15:18 | Biologist: Dr ALBA
DSC|FRAGMENT-002|P

DSR vs EDR vs RSP

• DSR — pre-laid-out text payload (ASCII art). Client side: direct print.
• EDR — Enhanced Display Response (v2.6+) with basic HL7 markup (bold/italic).
• RSP — structured response payload (PID, OBR, OBX) that the client must re-render.
• By 2026, IHE and FHIR push to use RSP + client-side viewer (CDA, FHIR Composition).

Common errors

• DSP-3 > 256 chars: v2.5.1 violation — use multiple DSP lines.
• DSC missing when fragmenting: client doesn't know the continuation is missing.
• Non-ASCII characters: mainframe terminals display squares instead of accents — use EDR if UTF-8 required.
• Confusion with ORU^R01: ORU is a spontaneous observation push, DSR is a query response.

Related query models (HL7 v2 Query Models)

See also: QRY^A19, ADR^A19, QBP^Q11.