Wiki Coding for Sepsis - Just verifying

[jessica1974]

Just verifying that I am coding this correctly. The guidelines say if sepsis is present on admission and meets the definition of prinicpal dx you can code the infection first then the code from sepsis (995.91 or995.92). It also says that 995.91 or 995.92 should never be the prinicpal dx. If the reason is for sepsis, local infection such as pneumonia then you would code the systemic infection (038.xx) first then sepsis then the infection. So I code it as 038.9 995.91 or 995.92 if no infection such as pneumonia. Does anyone know if I am doing this correctly? Recently saw a post where they had listed the 995.91 code first. I didn't think that was correct but now I am second guessing myself so I just wanted clarification.

Thanks.

 

[soprano]

Sepsis is SIRS due to infection. You are correct that 995.9x should never be a principle or first-listed diagnosis. Coding for sepsis requires that you code first for the underlying infection. If no organism responsible for the infection is specified, assign 038.9 (unspecified septicemia) as principle or first-listed diagnosis, followed by the appropriate code for sepsis (995.9x).

Hope that helps.

 

[rhondatalley]

A code from 038.XX should be PDX followed by 995.91 and the infection (0r 995.92 if there is also organ failure due to the sepsis). If the sepsis is due to candida, the coding will change and if the sepsis is underlying a complication of a procedure or device (i.e. CLABSI), then the complication code will supersede the 038.XX code.