title: Matching ICD-9-CM codes to clinical indicators--is it the way to go?
abstract: In early 1997, the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) Care Evaluation Program (CEP) collaborated with the National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH) to determine the feasibility of matching ICD-9-CM codes with a selected number of clinical indicators developed by CEP. While the results of this activity were encouraging, CEP is hesitant in advocating the use of ICD-9-CM as the complete answer to the data collection 'burden' experienced by health care organisations collecting clinical indicator data. CEP is concerned that obtaining clinical indicator data through ICD-9-CM coding alone may limit clinician participation in quality activities, narrow the focus of performance monitoring to one department, potentially compromise the intent of the indicators, and encourage a culture of 'near enough is good enough'. This paper examines the limitations of ICD-9-CM coding as the sole means of extracting clinical indicator data.
authors.affiliation: Australian Council on Healthcare Standards Care Evaluation Program.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Portelli
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brosi
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Collopy
mesh_terms: D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000592:standards; D001315:Australia; D004194:Disease / Q000145:classification*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records / Q000145:classification*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care