A report of the Injury Surveillance Workgroup Region 9, Safe States Alliance, December 2016.
Executive Summary
Impetus for this report: On October 1, 2015 in the United States, ICD-10-CM replaced ICD-9-CM for coding information in hospital discharge, emergency department, and outpatient records for administrative and financial transactions. This change will impact national and state-based injury and violence surveillance activities that use these records.
Overview of ICD-10-CM for injury diagnosis and external cause
- ICD-10-CM is substantially different from ICD-9-CM. ICD-10-CM codes for nature of injury (diagnosis) and external cause of injury capture greater detail than ICD-9-CM codes.
- ICD-10-CM contains approximately 43,000 injury diagnosis codes, compared to 2,600 injury diagnosis codes in ICD-9-CM.
- ICD-10-CM contains approximately 7,500 external cause of injury codes, compared to 1,300 external cause codes in ICD-9-CM.
The purpose of this report is to provide guidance to epidemiologists and others as they begin to use ICD-10-CM coded data for injury and violence surveillance.
The report provides guidance for:
- conducting initial analyses using ICD-10-CM coded data;
- using the proposed ICD-10-CM external cause of injury matrix to analyze and report injury data by mechanism and intent of injury; and
- presenting injury trend data that span the transition from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM.
Who can benefit from this report:
- epidemiologists and staff in injury and violence prevention programs; and
- researchers and others who use ICD-10-CM coded data.
As public health professionals gain experience and share findings and insights from working with injury-related ICD-10-CM coded data, this new knowledge will inform future national recommendations for injury and violence surveillance case definitions, methodologies and reporting frameworks based on ICD-10-CM.