ICD-10-CM Chapter 20 | How to Find External Causes of Morbidity Codes

let's do something a little different

typically we go right to the study of

the guidelines but I think the best way

to instruct on external causes of

morbidity is to begin with learning how

to look up the cones all right so before

we get to that let's define what an

external causes of morbidity code is

external causes codes are not diagnosis

these are outside factors or external

causes of that illness injury disease

all right external causes codes answer

the what what was the patient doing at

the time of the accident illness or

disease where where was the patient

doing it and how how did it happen so

how did that illness injury or disease

occur and the great thing is external

causes of morbidity codes has its own

index yes it's got its own index and

we're gonna take a peek on the next

slide on where to locate it

you pretty much look up the key terms in

the external causes index and then

locate your code and the key terms are

accident

activity burn contact fall and place of

occurrence these are the most common key

terms these are the most common they're

not the only but the most common so this

is a great place to start and let's go

ahead and do an exercise all right so

we're going to start looking up external

Casas codes just so you know where it's

located it is after the index the

alphabetic index after neoplasms table

this is the neoplasms table if you go

after it you'll find the table of drugs

in chemicals here's your table of drugs

and chemicals and after the table of

drugs and chemicals voila you've got

your external causes of illness external

causes of morbidity codes and look right

here see I don't know if you can see my

cursor I hope you can it says external

causes of external causes index okay so

we're here okay so the first keyword

hopefully you remember if not you can

just go back to the next to the previous

slide the first keyword is accident you

pretty much look up the key term

accident and let's say it's a bus

accident we're gonna scroll down to bus

and it tells us to see accident

transport bus occupant all right so I

gotta go to accident transport I'm an

accident no let's look for a transport

here you go transport and it said the

bus let's just follow the path that it

tells us bus here it is bus and then if

it just depends on what your

circumstance is if your documentation is

very specific you can be specific if

this was an accident and the occupants

was injured you would code it as visa

the 9.9 if that bus was in a collision

with an animal in traffic v7 0.9 if the

animal

was being ridden you could keep going on

and on I think you get the point or I

hope so

okay the next keyword is activity all

right so here you are activity and my

favorite sport to play is racquetball

and in fact I have broken my nose twice

playing racquetball so I'm sure when I

wound up in the edie they coded me why

93.7 three so you just look up the main

turn activity and then locate the

activity and in my case racquetball and

also keep in mind that on the page on

the the tip of the page the tab of the

page you actually have your keywords so

activity is here so you know you're in

the right section next burn burn is the

next keyword and here you go burn and

let's say you were burned at a bonfire

so you go burn and you scroll down

you'll find your bonfire it's kind of

specific to it'll say was it controlled

or uncontrolled and again on your tab

you'll see the key term and in our case

the next key word is contact and you

just look up the contact the the term

contact and what was the person in

contact with let's say that you were in

contact with a deer let's just look

contact with and the next term needs to

be deer see with is out

and then inside it should say dear so

we're gonna keep going until we find the

dd-dear okay and it tells you see

contact with hoof stock so you can't

find the deer here

it's a hoof stock make sure you just

follow the instructions so for our case

let's look up dog alright so if you

weren't contact with a dog then you

would use V 58.7 now it doesn't

necessarily mean you're going to be in

contact with animals all the time you

could be in contact with objects such as

a drill a power drill yeah if you were

cut by a power drill you would

definitely just come down and select the

drill code W 29.8 and again let's take a

peek on our tab see contact next the

next key word shall be fall yes so this

is pretty typical you know it's nothing

difficult to with this because it's more

common so fall down the stairs W 10.9 so

fall is your main term down and then you

only have a few selections so definitely

take a peek and see what is available

under fall but just to know on your tab

you'll find the word fall and our final

key term is place of occurrence this is

where this injury occurred and yes it is

under in alphabetical order place of

occurrence and let's say that it

happened at the house oh yeah look at

your tab place of occurrence and let's

say your injury happened at the house so

place of occurrence

let's find house

and here we go oh it's right here

place of occurrence house see also place

of occurrence resident and fortunate for

us it's just right here residents and

it's why ninety two point zero zero nine

let's say that they this the

documentation was very specific and said

that the place in the house of

occurrence in the house

they named the room and say it happened

in the bedroom

alright we're not gonna go to the

apartment we're not sure unless they

tell us it's an apartment bedroom if it

if they said that they live in a

single-family home and you just go house

and where's the bedroom here's the

bedroom right here okay why ninety two

point zero one three

so most documentation isn't that

specific it doesn't say you know people

don't say I live in a single-family home

but if you have a garage there you can

make some kind of assumptions but we

don't assume do we coders no we don't

also take note we have place of

occurrence on the tab to ensure that

we're in the right location when

selecting our term okay and as always

after you look it up in the index just

go ahead and verify it in the tabular

list I don't think I need to show you

that all right coders let's move on