Wiki How to code post procedural complication on a diabetic patient?

[mayra.zambrano]

We have a patient who came because the incision made from an ankle surgery has not healed, patient now has an infection. I wanted to know what codes I should use. My first thought is to code Diabetes Mellitus with skin complications , followed by the type of complication, and infections. But I keep on finding contradicting information that state that the complication should be coded first. Any thoughts?

 

[wisibyusha]

Hi, I believe you keep finding contradicting information that states the complication should be coded first is because of the guideline Section IV.G. In this case the reason the patient is seeing the doctor is to take care of the infection which means the reason for the encounter. However, the patient also has diabetes so in order to fully describe the condition of the patient, we have to code the diabetes code too. Note: the reason for the encounter is post procedural infection.

I hope that helps