Coding mechanisms for main condition in ICD-11

Abstract Countries have been routinely abstracting health data from hospital charts and coding conditions using ICD-10. A main condition must be assigned to each admission. However, the definition of main condition is inconsistent across countries, and may be based on (1) the initial reason for admi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hude Quan, Olafr Steinum, Danielle A. Southern, William A. Ghali
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2025-07-01
Series:BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-025-03069-6
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Summary:Abstract Countries have been routinely abstracting health data from hospital charts and coding conditions using ICD-10. A main condition must be assigned to each admission. However, the definition of main condition is inconsistent across countries, and may be based on (1) the initial reason for admission; (2) the reason for admission, as understood at the end of the hospital stay; and (3) the condition that consumed the most hospital resources or hospital days. Now, ICD-11 standardizes the coding schema for main condition. This paper describes the ICD-11 coding guidelines for main condition and discusses their implications for data comparability.
ISSN:1472-6947