Having taught medical terminology in the college setting, I personally consider the words "kidney" & "renal" to be synonymous.
Most of my daily work is HCC related.
Physicians are constantly documenting code 585.x as:
"renal stage X"
"renal insufficiency X"
"CRD"
"CRF"
My fellow auditor & I are sticklers for the documentation stating exactly "CKD stage X" or "chronic kidney disease stage X". I am willing to accept documentation as "chronic renal disease stage X" although, overall I would prefer the aforementioned. My co-worker, however, disagrees saying that the documentation SHOULD read exactly as stated in the ICD-9. & I understand where she is coming from, but I know that the physicians will also fight us on these semantics saying that renal means the same as kidney.
Thoughts? Is there a website anywhere we can refer to?
Most of my daily work is HCC related.
Physicians are constantly documenting code 585.x as:
"renal stage X"
"renal insufficiency X"
"CRD"
"CRF"
My fellow auditor & I are sticklers for the documentation stating exactly "CKD stage X" or "chronic kidney disease stage X". I am willing to accept documentation as "chronic renal disease stage X" although, overall I would prefer the aforementioned. My co-worker, however, disagrees saying that the documentation SHOULD read exactly as stated in the ICD-9. & I understand where she is coming from, but I know that the physicians will also fight us on these semantics saying that renal means the same as kidney.
Thoughts? Is there a website anywhere we can refer to?