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Clinical Coding Services
Welcome to the Clinical Coding Services Section of the Information Directorate, Ministry of Health. Here you will find information on the latest developments in clinical coding in New Zealand including clinical coding resources, standards and answers to coding queries.
Index
- ICD-10-AM, ACHI, ACS
- Using ICD-10-AM, ACHI, ACS
- SNOMED CT
- Contact Us
Introduction
Clinical coding is critical to collating health data in a meaningful and efficient way. Clinical Coding Services within the Ministry of Health plays a central role in leadership and direction for national clinical coding - ensuring quality information is available for casemix, research, health service planning, evaluation and funding.
New Zealand hospitals use the clinical coding classification developed by the World Health Organization and modified by the National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH), Australia called the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM). The classification is regularly reviewed and revised in order to keep up to date with clinical terminology and medicine. In July 2008 ICD-10-AM 6th Edition was implemented in New Zealand.
The clinical notes from all inpatient and daypatients discharged from New Zealand hospitals are coded and recorded in the hospital’s patient management system (PMS). Coded summaries of these discharges are forwarded to the Ministry of Health where the information is loaded and stored in the national collection (National Minimum Data Set) for easy retrieval and analyisis of the data. In New Zealand hospital discharge data is the basis for:
- national and regional morbidity and mortality analysis
- contract monitoring and payments
- research into diseases, injuries and patient outcomes
- benchmarking of clinical practice between hospitals,
- improving patient care, and
- improving hospital practices and resource allocation.
The Clinical Coding Services leadership team engages in activities that ensure New Zealand is represented in benchmarking and information sharing with international, (particularly Australian), health care organisations and works with the National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH) in the ongoing development of future editions of ICD-10-AM. Clinical Coding Services also manages the implementation of ICD-10-AM within New Zealand which primarily involves a focus on education and clinical coding data quality.
The Ministry of Health is also a Charter Member of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) which owns and administers the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT). Clinical terminologies are the component of health language used at point of care for the purpose of clinical management. For more information click on the SNOMED CT link contained within these pages.
Clinical Coding Services promotes excellence in clinical coding and we hope that you will use this web resource to support and develop your clinical coding practices.
Tracey Vandenberg
Clinical Coding Services Manager
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