Pathology/Lab Coding Alert

Question: The lab performed an aerobic culture from a burn swab and presumptively identified Staphylococcus. The ordering physician stated that the patient came following an accident at a campfire, and identified the swab source as a third-degree burn of the left foot. How should we code this?

Tennessee Subscriber

Answer: The code for the culture service is 87070 (Culture, bacterial; any other source except urine, blood or stool, aerobic, with isolation and presumptive identification of isolates).

If the ordering physician provided only the narrative diagnosis, you can assign an ICD-10 code accordingly. The best option would be T25.322A (Burn of third degree of left foot, initial encounter). You could also assign an external cause code such as X03.0 (Exposure to flames in controlled fire, not in building or structure).