Table 3 about here
The time trend for first 3 categories of consulting requests is shown in
Figure 2.
The Figure 3 and 4 show the trend of COVID-19 and death of it in Iran28
Finally, based on the analysis of coders’ surveys and consultations,
some issues which needed more transparency for accurate coding were
extracted as follows:
- Discharge against medical advice in the initial stages of the onset of
the COVID-19 pandemic can distort the related COVID-19 statistics in
future medical reports.
- For coding of deceased cases, in particular in the elderly population
and those with pre-existing conditions, identification of the
underlying cause of death was the most important challenge as observed
by coders.
- Coding of pregnancy deliveries by suspected COVID-19 mothers and
screening of new-borns and pregnant women.
- With the gradual increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and
deployment of different therapeutic interventions and clinical trials,
coding of procedures and ICU cases were new topics of discussion among
coders which had no definitive answer.
- In COVID-19 cases, there were unanswered or indefinite queries cases
such as: ”maternal and infant cases”, ”procedures, drugs and intensive
care unit (ICU) cases” and ”other diseases with contact with and
exposure to COVID-19 or having had a COVID-19 history”.
From the viewpoint of coders, these remote consultations were helpful
and effective, especially during code allocation for the purpose of
increasing the transparency and accuracy of coding.