Observation for suspected infection NOS
| ICD10 Diagnosis | |
| Dx: | Observation for suspected infection NOS |
| ICD10 code: | Z03.8 |
| Pre-ICD10 counterpart: | none assigned |
| Charlson/ALERT Scale: | none |
| APACHE Como Component: | none |
| APACHE Acute Component: | none |
| Start Date: | |
| Stop Date: | |
| External ICD10 Documentation | |
This diagnosis is a part of ICD10 collection.
Additional Info
This code is combined with a pathogen if a person was observed for a suspected infection but did NOT end up having an infection.
Excludes:
ICD10 Guideline COVID
Coding COVID related diagnoses is complicated, and they are of special interest in our reporting, so we need to get these right. See ICD10 Guideline COVID.
Suspected infections being confirmed POSITIVE or NEGATIVE
- If a suspected infection becomes confirmed, remove this code and replace it with the relevant infection code
- If a suspected infection test comes back negative, delete the code unless that code was the only reason for admission, in which case leave it in
- ALSO, do NOT use this combination of codes for each COVID swab sent, as this represents a diagnosis, not a procedure.
Alternate ICD10s to consider coding instead or in addition
| Observation codes: |
Candidate Combined ICD10 codes
Infections
Infections in ICD10 have combined coding requirements for some of their pathogens. Any that have antibiotic resistances would store those as Combined ICD10 codes as well. If the infection is acquired in the hospital, see Nosocomial infection, NOS. See Lab and culture reports for confirmation and details about tests. See Infections in ICD10 for more general info.
Possible Simultaneous Presence of Multiple Different Types of Infection in a Single Site
- This refers to the situation where there may be simultaneous infection with multiple types of organisms -- e.g. 2 of bacteria, virus, fungus. While a classic example is a proven viral pneumonia (e.g. influenza) with a suspected/possible bacterial pneumonia superimposed, this kind of thing can occur in places other than the lungs, e.g. meningitis.
- The "signature" of this is typically the patient being treated simultaneously with antimicrobial agents for multiple types of organisms. BUT don't confuse this with there being infections at DIFFERENT body sites.
- As per our usual practice, we will consider a diagnosis as present if the clinical team thinks it's present and are treating it, with the exception that the team initially treated for the possible 2nd type of infection but then decided it likely was NOT present and stopped those agents.
- And remember that Infectious organism, unknown is used when the the specific organism is unknown (this could be not knowing the TYPE of organism, or suspecting the type but not having identified the specific organism of that type), while when the organism has been identified but it's not in our bug list, THEN use Bacteria, NOS, Virus, NOS or Fungus or yeast, NOS.
Attribution of infections
Related CCI Codes
Data Integrity Checks (automatic list)
| App | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| Query check ICD10 Inf Potential Infection must have pathogen or alt | CCMDB.accdb | declined |
| Query Check Inf Pathogens must have Infection requiring pathogen or Potential Infection | CCMDB.accdb | implemented |
Legacy info
Until 2021-02-22 the instruction was to keep the Observation entry rather than change it to the actual manifestation, so older data would list this different from newer instructions.
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