Received question about infection coding that we sent to the National Board of Health and Welfare for comments
Question:
Normally, when encoding infections, the type of infection should be chosen as the main diagnosis (main ICU diagnosis) and the agent and severity as a bee diagnosis (other diagnosis).
E.g. Cholangitis with septic shock and with demonstrated findings of E. coli becomes:
Main diagnosis Kolangit K83.0
- BidiagnosE. coli B96.2
- Bidiagnos Ev Antibiotic Resistance U-Code
- Bidiagnosseptic shock R57.2
Examples given for COVID-19 have not been done in the same way:
- U07.1 Covid-19, virus identified
- J12.8 Other specified viral pneumonia
Here the agent has been entered first. What are you supposed to do?
Answer from the National Board of Health and Welfare:
We are aware of this, but we follow WHO's instructions on how to code in the case of COVID-19 and therefore the U07 code is first entered.