{"id":2064,"date":"2021-03-05T10:45:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T09:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2021-05-27T09:23:11","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T08:23:11","slug":"setting-the-foundation-for-using-icd-10-cm-coded-data-for-injury-surveillance-and-epidemiology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/2021\/03\/05\/setting-the-foundation-for-using-icd-10-cm-coded-data-for-injury-surveillance-and-epidemiology\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting the foundation for using ICD-10-CM-coded data for injury surveillance and epidemiology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renee L. Johnson, M.S.P.H., R.P.T.,1<\/sup> Holly Hedegaard, M.D., M.S.P.H.,2<\/sup> Emilia Pasalic, MPH,1<\/sup> Pedro Martinez, MPH1<\/sup><\/p>\n

1<\/sup>National Center for Injury Prevention and Control<\/em><\/p>\n

2<\/sup>National Center for Health Statistics<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Injury epidemiologists live in a world of standard coding schemas, case definitions, and agreed-upon ways of grouping and categorizing injuries. But what happens when the basic foundation for this type of work undergoes a major change? For decades, injury epidemiologists in the United States and elsewhere relied on the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification<\/em> (ICD-9-CM) to identify and categorize injuries seen in hospitals and emergency departments. In 2015, a new coding rubric went into effect in the United States. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) required all hospitals and health care providers in the United States to use the International Classification of Diseases, 10th<\/sup> Revision, Clinical Modification<\/em> (ICD-10-CM) to report electronic health care transactions beginning in October 2015. This change required an update to injury surveillance case definitions, analysis guidance, and standard tools that had been developed for use with ICD-9-CM-coded data to the new \u201clanguage\u201d of ICD-10-CM.<\/p>\n

One might think this shouldn\u2019t be too difficult, but in reality, the transition required a huge effort involving multiple partnerships. The first phase began more than a decade ago when development for tools such as \u00a0proposed case definitions<\/a> and proposed groupings for categorizing injuries by external cause<\/a> or by injury diagnosis<\/a> began in the absence of any ICD-10-CM coded data. The approach used in these early efforts was to mirror or update the well-established ICD-9-CM-based tools that were already in place.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 2016, injury epidemiologists began to have access to ICD-10-CM-coded hospital and emergency department discharge data. Analysis of these data provided the first opportunity to test the proposed tools and to learn what worked, what didn\u2019t work, and what adjustments needed to be made. Collaborative partnerships among national, state, and local public health agencies; universities; and professional and non-profit organizations worked together to test and refine these tools.\u00a0 The tools were adjusted based on the test findings and produced:<\/p>\n