Wiki Elderly Primigravida in Emergency Department

[Goosie]

I have some confusion regarding Pregnancy coding in the Emergency Department.

If it is the provider's responsibility to document that a pregnancy is incidental to the Emergency Room encounter, I assume that all encounters that are not documented as such are to be coded from Chapter 15 of the ICD 10.

If the patient is 38 years old, would it be appropriate to use Supervision of High Risk Pregnancy - Elderly Primigravida or Multigravida on the ED encounter, or is "Supervision" for use by OB/GYN?

Thanks you,

Sue

 

[bwolfe1]

"Codes from category O09, Supervision of high-risk pregnancy, are intended for use only during the prenatal period. For complications during the labor or delivery episode as a result of a high-risk pregnancy, assign the applicable complication codes from Chapter 15. If there are no complications during the labor or delivery episode, assign code O80, Encounter for full-term uncomplicated delivery.
For routine prenatal outpatient visits for patients with high-risk pregnancies, a code from category O09, Supervision of high-risk pregnancy, should be used as the first-listed diagnosis. Secondary chapter 15 codes may be used in conjunction with these codes if appropriate." Posted from www.journal.ahima.org

In your ER case, you would code for the Elderly Primigravida.

 

[mitchellde]

to determine the correct code the first question is, why is the patient in the ER. then you would select the appropriate chapter 15 code. such as a laceration and the patient is pregnant would be coded using the O9A.2- code for the trauma and the code for the injury secondary with the Z3A third and any external cause codes.