Z SEGMENTS contain clinical or patient data that may not be a good FIT for other segments of the HL7 v2 standard, said Bull. Essentially, it's used as the 'catch all' for data that doesn't fit into the HL7 Standard message definitions – Z segments can be inserted into any message. They're also one reason why the HL7 Standard is SOMETIMES called a flexible standard, he added. There literally are no limits to the data CONTAINED in a Z segment, or in the NUMBER of Z segments included in an HL7 message," said Bull.

Z segments contain clinical or patient data that may not be a good fit for other segments of the HL7 v2 standard, said Bull. Essentially, it's used as the 'catch all' for data that doesn't fit into the HL7 Standard message definitions – Z segments can be inserted into any message. They're also one reason why the HL7 Standard is sometimes called a flexible standard, he added. There literally are no limits to the data contained in a Z segment, or in the number of Z segments included in an HL7 message," said Bull.