What is ICD-10 - Research Paper Example

Each category includes a set of related diseases or health conditions. Buechner (2002) states that there are over 120,000 codes available in ICD-10. ICD-10 is actually a diagnostic code set that interprets the signs, symptoms, diagnosis of diseases, abnormalities and other health conditions from words to codes which are used to store, retrieve and analyze the data later on (World Health Organization, 2004, p. 3). It was originally meant for the statistical classification of mortality rate recorded at the time of death registration.

Afterwards, it played its role in compilation of morbidity statistics as well. ICD-10 was published in 1992 and has been in use in WHO Member States since 1994 after getting approved by the forty-third World Health Assembly in 1990. ICD-10 was published when the need for a stable and flexible classification system was felt that would not require revisions for many years. The Federal agency, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in the United States, holds the responsibility for the maintenance of ICD-10.

WHO has approved the expansion of versions of ICD-10 to be used in the United States for typical government reasons. All amendments to be done to the ICD-10 must obey the rules laid down by WHO conferences for the ICD. ICD-10-CM is the clinical modification of ICD-10 and is referred to as a new diagnosis coding system that has replaced volumes 1 & 2 of ICD-9-CM. it was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; while, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) holds the responsibility to maintain this clinical modification coding.

According to AHIMA (2009), it is a morbidity classification system that classifies the diagnoses of diseases along with other reasons for healthcare encounters. Health conditions are given alphanumeric codes comprising of 3-7 digits. The clinical modification contains features that give