Pin Down Pneumonia Cause for Correct ICD-10 Code Choice

Pneumonia will arise from respiratory infections with causes determined to be microorganism, viral, iatrogenic, fungal, parasitic, ensuing from aspiration, etc.

In nursing facilities, the foremost common pneumonias encountered are microorganism, viral, or caused by aspiration or procedure complication (iatrogenic). This info undoubtedly provides an honest origin for SNF physicians seeking to diagnose a resident’s kind of pneumonia. Similarly, these common causes of pneumonia are worth keeping in mind once coding a resident’s condition.

Naturally, deciding the precise reason for pneumonia informs your workers on a way to proceed with the resident’s treatment. Knowing the reason for pneumonia is equally crucial to choosing the right ICD-10 code for the provider’s diagnosis.

Coding Scenario 1: Bacterial Pneumonia

There are various codes for pneumonia caused by bacterium, which you'll be able to realize in code category J15.

For you to decide on the right code from the 13 attainable code choices, you’ll need to apprehend the precise causative organism, like klebsiella, pseudomonas, staphylococcus, , streptococci, and escherichia coli.

Coding Scenario 2: Viral Pneumonia

You will conjointly need to be aware of code choices for pneumonia due to microorganism causes. Where as class J12 talks of viral pneumonias like SARS and syncytial virus, categories J10 and J11 have codes for influenza with associated pneumonia.

Coding Scenario 3: Aspiration Pneumonia

In nursing facilities, you recognize that residents who need help with foods or fluids may be particularly in danger for aspiration pneumonia. There’s a dedicated category J69 - (Pneumonitis because of solids and liquids), however you ought to watch out in choosing the precise code here also.

Coding Scenario 4: Iatrogenic Pneumonia

Pneumonia could prove as a complication or results of a process. If the documentation suggests that the resident developed pneumonia throughout treatment whereas on a ventilator, you will assign the code J95.851 (Ventilator associated pneumonia). You’ll need to use an extra code to spot the organism, if famed (B95.-, B96.-, and B97.-).

At times, there may be an extra diagnosis like sepsis (R65.2-) or respiratory failure (J96.-), that you would need further documentation.

Coding Scenario 5: Uncommon Causes

Not all cases of pneumonia will result from the causes expected at intervals your resident population, of course.

If you recognize that a resident’s pneumonia isn’t because of bacterium, a virus, or aspiration, you will have to be compelled to look to different causative organisms, like fungus, parasite, or mycosis. There are concerning 20 coding choices to think about. The causative organism could be rubella, Salmonella, spirochete, actinomycetes amongst several others.