Accurate coding in sepsis: clinical significance and financial implications.
Sepsis is a major healthcare problem and leading cause of death worldwide. UK hospital mortality statistics and payments for patient episodes of care are calculated on clinical coding data. The accuracy of these data depends on the quality of coding. This study aimed to investigate whether patients with significant bacteraemia are coded for sepsis and to estimate the financial costs of miscoding. Of 54 patients over a one-month period with a significant bacteraemia, only 19% had been coded for sepsis. This is likely to lead to falsely high calculated hospital mortality. Furthermore, this resulted in an underpayment of £21,000 for one month alone.
Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester, UK. Electronic address: yoon-toong.chin@uhsm.nhs.uk.
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Chin
Performance and Information, University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester, UK.
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Scattergood
Department of Acute Medicine, University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester, UK.
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Thornber
Department of Microbiology, University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester, UK.
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Thomas
D059019:Clinical Coding / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006113:United Kingdom
Coding data; Financial implications; Sepsis