Objective:
The accuracy of clinical coding in COVID-19 is essential for quality of
care, disease surveillance, as well as research and reporting. This
study aims to describe and categorize consultations between medical
coders based on the social media network in Iran on the COVID-19 coding.
Method :
A clinical coding group in the social network at the national level in
Iran was established to follow consultation regarding COVID-19 among
coders. We also utilized an online survey, which was designed to extract
the problems coders encountered during clinical coding and their opinion
on whether these consultations were effective. Herein, we report
messages and communication records exchanged among members of this
network obtained between 21 February 2020 and 20 November 2020. Finally,
we categorised the obtained information and identified the problems for
COVID-19 accurate coding in Iran.
Results :
A total of 1,340 messages in 332 consultations were exchanged amongst 76
coders. We categorised topics of consultations into 11 categories. Most
consultations dealt with “suspected or probable” (n = 71), “clinical
coding and diagnosis” (n=59) within 332 conversations. In 47% of
consultations, the first reply was less than 10 ± 3 min. ”Maternal and
infant ” and ”procedures and drugs ” were the most common subjects with
specific answer. Based on the viewpoints of coders, online consultations
can reduce the time of clinical coding and increase coding accuracy.