Experiencia en el desarrollo e implementación de la metodología de grupos relacionados por diagnóstico en un hospital universitario chileno. Evaluación a diez años de funcionamiento / Implementation of diagnosis related groups methodology in a university hospital

Background The Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) constitute a method of classifying hospital discharges. Aim To report its development and implementation in a Chilean University Hospital and global results of 10 years Material and Methods We included 231,600 discharges from 2007 to 2016. In the development we considered the physical plant, clinical record flow, progressively incorporated human resources and computer equipment for coding and analysis to obtain results. The parameters used were: average stay, average DRG weight, mean of diagnosis and codified procedures, behavior of upper outliers, hospital mortality, distribution by severity and its relationship with other variables. Results The global complexity index was 0.9929. The average of diagnoses coded was 4.35 and of procedures was 7.21. The average stay was 4.56 days, with a downward trend. The top outliers corresponded to 2.25%, with stable hospital days and average DRG weight. The median of hospital mortality was 1.65% with a tendency to decrease and stable DRG mean weight. Seventy two percent had a grade 1 severity, with low median hospital stay. They occupied 40% of bed days. Nine percent had a grade 3 severity with high median hospital stay and accounting for 31.5% of bed days. Conclusions DRG methodology is a valuable information tool for decision making and result assessment in hospital management.

Computer-based clinical coding activity analysis for neurosurgical terms / 영남의대학술지

BACKGROUND: It is not possible to measure how much activity is required to understand and code a medical data. We introduce an assessment method in clinical coding, and applied this method to neurosurgical terms.METHODS: Coding activity consists of two stages. At first, the coders need to understand a presented medical term (informational activity). The second coding stage is about a navigating terminology browser to find a code that matches the concept (code-matching activity). Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine – Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) was used for the coding system. A new computer application to record the trajectory of the computer mouse and record the usage time was programmed. Using this application, we measured the time that was spent. A senior neurosurgeon who has studied SNOMED CT has analyzed the accuracy of the input coding. This method was tested by five neurosurgical residents (NSRs) and five medical record administrators (MRAs), and 20 neurosurgical terms were used.RESULTS: The mean accuracy of the NSR group was 89.33%, and the mean accuracy of the MRA group was 80% (p=0.024). The mean duration for total coding of the NSR group was 158.47 seconds, and the mean duration for total coding of the MRA group was 271.75 seconds (p=0.003).CONCLUSION: We proposed a method to analyze the clinical coding process. Through this method, it was possible to accurately calculate the time required for the coding. In neurosurgical terms, NSRs had shorter time to complete the coding and higher accuracy than MRAs.

Preliminary study on spinal nerve coding and injury typing / 中华创伤杂志

Currently,there is no study on the unified coding of the spinal nerve and its main branches.The positions of spinal nerve were encoded according to the basic anatomical principles from top to bottom,from inside to outside and from front to back,with reference to AO bone classification and somatic artery coding and injury classification system.The segmental coding of spinal nerves was decided by its branches and running characteristics.The spinal nerve injuries were encoded by a combination of numbers and letters.The first number represented the region,the second represented the injured nerve,and the third represented the specific segment of injured nerve.The injuries of spinal nerve were divided into 5 categories according to severity.The first letter indicated the category of injury,and the second indicated the orientation of the injured nerve.The functional score scale of the innervation area was prepared based on the evaluation of motor function,sensory function and the results of neurophysiological examination.This scale was used to classify the neurological injuries,guide the clinical treatment and evaluate the prognostic outcomes.This coding and classification system can clearly and comprehensively describe the location and type of spinal nerve injuries,and it is convenient for the diagnosis of nervous system damage.It also has important reference value for treatment and prognosis evaluation.

Incidence Of Clinical Coding Errors And Implications On Casemix Reimbursement In A Teaching Hospital In Malaysia

@#Clinical coding creates a rich database that can be used for administrative functions including planning for health service programmes and preparing budget of hospitals with appropriate use of disease and procedure classification system. Clinical coding errors may occur in the diagnoses or procedure codes. The errors can be happen at any of the digits use in the classification codes. Errors in clinical coding can give a huge implication on hospital’s income if the coding system is used for reimbursement. This study aims to determine incidence of clinical coding errors among 464 patient’s medical records (PMR). An independent senior coder was appointed to review the selected PMRs and the clinical codes. Post-audit evaluation shows that 89.4%(415/464) of the records contained at least one coding error in the assignment of diagnosis or procedure codes. Error in secondary diagnosis code was the highest comprising 81.3% (377/464) of the records. Coding errors were particularly found in O&G discipline comprising 94.8% (110/116) of the selected records. These errors caused a potential loss of RM 666,461 for the hospital. The highest pre-and post audit variance of potential income was RM 568,403 for paediatric discipline. The hospital should carry out regular monitoring of quality of clinical coding in order to prevent loss of income in the future when the reimbursement of services is linked to coding of diagnosis and procedures.

Quality Coding of Malnutrition under the Casemix System in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia

Introduction: Detailed clinical information is important for the Casemix System to generate valuable Case Based Group (CBG) for malnourished geriatric patients. Clinical coding for malnutrition provides useful information on the nutritional health of patients for treatment purposes. Methods: This cross-sectional study with purposive sampling involved a total of 130 geriatric patients (>60 years) at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Nutritional assessments were performed such as anthropometrics measurement, Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), and biochemical assessment. The patients’ medical records and coded data were systematically reviewed to observe the documentation of nutritional information and coding criteria based on the International Classification for Diseases (ICD-10). Results: The prevalence of malnutrition among the geriatric patients was 35.4%. Proper documentation of required nutritional information was found in less than 50% of the cases. None of the malnourished patients were documented and coded with malnutrition diagnosis, despite being given nutritional interventions. The reasons given for this omission were related to the lack of awareness (50%) and incomplete medical documentation (50%). Further analysis revealed that uncoded diagnosis, miscoding, missing, and unavailable codes for nutritional counselling and oral nutritional supplementation were the main contributors to the incomplete records. Conclusion: The quality of clinical coding for malnourished geriatric patients in the hospital should be improved. A structured assessment and standard documentation is recommended to improve the quality of healthcare provision for malnourished geriatric patients.

Validity of Principal Diagnoses in Discharge Summaries and ICD-10 Coding Assessments Based on National Health Data of Thailand / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the validity of the principal diagnoses on discharge summaries and coding assessments. METHODS: Data were collected from the National Health Security Office (NHSO) of Thailand in 2015. In total, 118,971 medical records were audited. The sample was drawn from government hospitals and private hospitals covered by the Universal Coverage Scheme in Thailand. Hospitals and cases were selected using NHSO criteria. The validity of the principal diagnoses listed in the “Summary and Coding Assessment” forms was established by comparing data from the discharge summaries with data obtained from medical record reviews, and additionally, by comparing data from the coding assessments with data in the computerized ICD (the data base used for reimbursement-purposes). RESULTS: The summary assessments had low sensitivities (7.3%–37.9%), high specificities (97.2%–99.8%), low positive predictive values (9.2%–60.7%), and high negative predictive values (95.9%–99.3%). The coding assessments had low sensitivities (31.1%–69.4%), high specificities (99.0%–99.9%), moderate positive predictive values (43.8%–89.0%), and high negative predictive values (97.3%–99.5%). The discharge summaries and codings often contained mistakes, particularly the categories “Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases”, “Symptoms, signs, and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified”, “Factors influencing health status and contact with health services”, and “Injury, poisoning, and certain other consequences of external causes”. CONCLUSIONS: The validity of the principal diagnoses on the summary and coding assessment forms was found to be low. The training of physicians and coders must be strengthened to improve the validity of discharge summaries and codings.

Developing An E-Learning Education Program For Casemix System; Process And Out Come

Realizing the huge potential of e-learning in casemix education and since there was no e-learning program on casemix and clinical coding available globally. International Centre for Case-mix and Clinical Coding (ITCC) proposed to establish a universal case-mix education programs through providing an e-learning program (ELP) for case-mix and clinical coding and evaluate its success. The aim of this study is to describe the process of development of e-learning program for casemix system and clinical coding. The introduction of course about casemix and clinical coding was redesigned for e-learning program by applying ADDIE model (refer to Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation).A total number of 57 learners attended to the course from around the world (40 different countries). The mean age of subjects was 34.70±8.66 years. Regarding profession, the largest percentiles (40.4%) of e-learners were belonging to academic sector and healthcare sector. All of the participants felt satisfied or very satisfied with the program. There was a significant difference between pre-test and post-test for e-learners knowledge score at the 0.05 alpha levels. The findings of the evaluation of the case-mix e-learning program indicated that e-learners found the educational performances of the case-mix online program to be satisfactory. With the advent of modern computer networking systems, organizations can employ these systems to enhance learning and performance improvement of case mix system.

Conversion and Data Quality Assessment of Electronic Health Record Data at a Korean Tertiary Teaching Hospital to a Common Data Model for Distributed Network Research / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: A distributed research network (DRN) has the advantages of improved statistical power, and it can reveal more significant relationships by increasing sample size. However, differences in data structure constitute a major barrier to integrating data among DRN partners. We describe our experience converting Electronic Health Records (EHR) to the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) Common Data Model (CDM). METHODS: We transformed the EHR of a hospital into Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) CDM ver. 4.0 used in OHDSI. All EHR codes were mapped and converted into the standard vocabulary of the CDM. All data required by the CDM were extracted, transformed, and loaded (ETL) into the CDM structure. To validate and improve the quality of the transformed dataset, the open-source data characterization program ACHILLES was run on the converted data. RESULTS: Patient, drug, condition, procedure, and visit data from 2.07 million patients who visited the subject hospital from July 1994 to November 2014 were transformed into the CDM. The transformed dataset was named the AUSOM. ACHILLES revealed 36 errors and 13 warnings in the AUSOM. We reviewed and corrected 28 errors. The summarized results of the AUSOM processed with ACHILLES are available at http://ami.ajou.ac.kr:8080/. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully converted our EHRs to a CDM and were able to participate as a data partner in an international DRN. Converting local records in this manner will provide various opportunities for researchers and data holders.

Reliability of cause of death coding: an international comparison / Concordancia en la codificación de causas de muerte: una comparación internacional / Confiabilidade de codificação das causas de óbito: uma comparação internacional

This study evaluates the agreement of nosologic coding of cardiovascular causes of death between a Chilean coder and one in the United States, in a stratified random sample of death certificates of persons aged ≥ 60, issued in 2008 in the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions, Chile. All causes of death were converted to ICD-10 codes in parallel by both coders. Concordance was analyzed with inter-coder agreement and Cohen’s kappa coefficient by level of specification ICD-10 code for the underlying cause and the total causes of death coding. Inter-coder agreement was 76.4% for all causes of death and 80.6% for the underlying cause (agreement at the four-digit level), with differences by the level of specification of the ICD-10 code, by line of the death certificate, and by number of causes of death per certificate. Cohen's kappa coefficient was 0.76 (95%CI: 0.68-0.84) for the underlying cause and 0.75 (95%CI: 0.74-0.77) for the total causes of death. In conclusion, causes of death coding and inter-coder agreement for cardiovascular diseases in two regions of Chile are comparable to an external benchmark and with reports from other countries.

Este estudo avaliou a confiabilidade na codificação das causas de óbitos cardiovasculares entre um codificador no Chile e outro nos Estados Unidos, em uma amostra aleatória estratificada de declarações de óbito de pessoas ≥ 60 anos, emitidas em 2008 nas regiões de Valparaíso e Metropolitana do Chile. Todas as causas da morte foram convertidas em códigos CID-10 em paralelo por ambos os codificadores. A confiabilidade foi avaliada de acordo com o intercodificador e o coeficiente kappa de Cohen, segundo o nível de especificação do código CID-10 para a codificação de causa básica e para todas as causas de óbito. A concordância intercodificador foi de 76,4% para todas as causas de morte e 80,6% para a causa básica (acordo no nível de quatro dígitos), com diferenças por nível de especificação do código CID-10, linha da declaração de óbito, e por número de causas de morte por declaração de óbito. O coeficiente kappa foi 0,76 (IC95%: 0,68-0,84) para a causa básica e 0,75 (IC95%: 0,74-0,77) para todas as causas de óbito. Em conclusão, a codificação das causas de morte cardiovasculares e acordo intercodificador em duas regiões do Chile são comparáveis a uma referência externa e com os relatórios de outros países.

Este estudio evalúa la concordancia en la codificación de causas de muerte cardiovasculares entre un codificador en Chile y otro en EEUU en una muestra aleatoria estratificada de certificados de defunción de personas ≥ 60 años, emitidos el 2008 en las Regiones de Valparaíso y Metropolitana de Chile. Todas las causas de muerte fueron convertidas a códigos CIE-10 en paralelo por ambas codificadoras. La concordancia se analizó con el acuerdo inter-codificador y el coeficiente kappa de Cohen, según nivel de especificación del código CIE-10 para la codificación de la causa básica y para el total de causas de muerte. El acuerdo inter-codificador fue 76,4% para el total de causas de muerte y 80,6% para la causa básica (acuerdo a nivel de cuatro dígitos), con diferencias según nivel de especificación del código CIE, línea del certificado y número de causas de muerte por certificado. El coeficiente kappa de Cohen fue 0,76 (IC95%: 0,68-0,84) para la causa básica y 0.75 (IC95%: 0.74-0.77) para el total de causas de muerte. En conclusión, la codificación de causas de muerte cardiovasculares y el acuerdo inter-codificador en dos regiones de Chile son comparables a una referencia externa y a informes internacionales.

Diagnostic Coding for Intramucosal Carcinoma and Neuroendocrine Tumor in the Colorectum: Proposal for Avoiding Confusing Coding in Korea

Applying proper coding is important for doctors practicing gastroenterology. The coding systems established by various organizations define tumors differently. As a result of changing concepts of tumor classification, there are coding and reimbursement issues following the confirmation of malignant lesions by nationwide cancer screening in patients with intramucosal carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors of the colorectum. In addition, there have been discrepancies between the views of endoscopists and pathologists regarding tumor coding. The Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy held an expert meeting and established a consensus for the coding of intramucosal carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumor of the colorectum.

Diagnostic Coding for Intramucosal Carcinoma and Neuroendocrine Tumor in the Colorectum: Proposal for Avoiding Confusing Coding in Korea

Applying proper coding is important for doctors practicing gastroenterology. The coding systems established by various organizations define tumors differently. As a result of changing concepts of tumor classification, there are coding and reimbursement issues following the confirmation of malignant lesions by nationwide cancer screening in patients with intramucosal carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors of the colorectum. In addition, there have been discrepancies between the views of endoscopists and pathologists regarding tumor coding. The Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy held an expert meeting and established a consensus for the coding of intramucosal carcinoma and neuroendocrine tumor of the colorectum.

Comparison of Knowledge Levels Required for SNOMED CT Coding of Diagnosis and Operation Names in Clinical Records / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: Coding Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) with complex and polysemy clinical terms may ask coder to have a high level of knowledge of clinical domains, but with simpler clinical terms, coding may require only simpler knowledge. However, there are few studies quantitatively showing the relation between domain knowledge and coding ability. So, we tried to show the relationship between those two areas. METHODS: We extracted diagnosis and operation names from electronic medical records of a university hospital for 500 ophthalmology and 500 neurosurgery patients. The coding process involved one ophthalmologist, one neurosurgeon, and one medical record technician who had no experience of SNOMED coding, without limitation to accessing of data for coding. The coding results and domain knowledge were compared. RESULTS: 705 and 576 diagnoses, and 500 and 629 operation names from ophthalmology and neurosurgery, were enrolled, respectively. The physicians showed higher performance in coding than in MRT for all domains; all specialist physicians showed the highest performance in domains of their own departments. All three coders showed statistically better coding rates in diagnosis than in operation names (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Performance of SNOMED coding with clinical terms is strongly related to the knowledge level of the domain and the complexity of the clinical terms. Physicians who generate clinical data can be the best potential candidates as excellent coders from the aspect of coding performance.