Question

The first step in locating an ICD code is to:

A) locate the code in the Tabular List.
B) look up the diagnosis in the Alphabetic Index.
C) determine what procedure was performed.
D) check the Table of Drugs and Chemicals.
E) look up the diagnosis in the E code Alphabetic Index.

Answer 1

To locate an ICD code, you must first look up the diagnosis in the Alphabetic Index before cross-referencing with the Tabular List. These codes are used in health records, death certificates, and for statistical purposes by epidemiologists.

Step-by-step explanation:

The first step in locating an ICD code is to look up the diagnosis in the Alphabetic Index. This involves identifying the disease, condition, or injury of the patient and then using the Alphabetic Index to find the corresponding preliminary code. After finding the initial code in the Alphabetic Index, it is vital to cross-reference it with the Tabular List to verify the correct code and to check for any additional instruction or subclassifications that might affect the final code assignment.

ICD codes are essential in various areas of healthcare and are commonly found in medical health records, where they are used to encode diagnoses and treatments, and on official documents such as death certificates, where they note the cause of death. Epidemiologists also rely on ICD codes to track disease trends and calculate morbidity and mortality statistics.