Why accuracy matters: quality, safety and funding

Behind every code, a decision

Behind every code is a decision that someone relies on, long after the encounter is over.

Where coded data goes

WHO lists what a sound written record, coded well, supports. Health care planning, management, monitoring and evaluation. Epidemiology and the identification of risk populations. Clinical research. And reimbursement and health care funding.

• Planning · Health systems · Health care planning, management, monitoring and evaluation.
• Public health · Risk · Epidemiology and the identification of risk populations.
• Research and funding · Evidence · Clinical research, reimbursement and health care funding.

What is lost when detail is left out

Detail is data. The causing condition must be coded when it is known, for primary tabulation. And the codes in a cluster have to be kept together in transmission and evaluation, or the information they carry jointly is lost.

• Cause · Mandatory · The causing condition must be coded when known, for primary tabulation.
• Together · Kept together · Codes in a cluster must be grouped in transmission and evaluation, or the joint information is lost.

Millions of decisions

The scale is large. In one national pilot, coders recorded about three point seven million diagnoses for nearly nine hundred thousand patients in just two months. Small, repeated omissions become large gaps in the data.

• 3.7 million · One pilot · Diagnoses coded in two months in a national pilot: 3,723,959 diagnoses for 873,425 patients.

Comparability over years

Accuracy also protects comparability over time. Data mapped from ICD-10 to ICD-11 will not be exactly equivalent to what was first recorded. So trend analyses need to track the condition under study carefully.

• The risk · Not equal · Data mapped from ICD-10 to ICD-11 will not be exactly equivalent to data first reported in ICD-10.
• The care · Track it · Trend analyses should carefully track the condition under study.

Keep these in mind

Coded data feeds planning, public health, research and funding. Missing detail is missing data. And specific coding keeps data comparable.

• Coded data feeds planning, public health, research and funding
• Missing detail is missing data
• Specific coding keeps data comparable