Standards help with consistency, quality, and trending. The standards
and guidelines for coding guide coders from all types of medical
facilities on coding patient encounters, diagnoses, signs and
symptoms and more. Standards are a way to ensure each patient
encounter is coded to the highest level of specificity and is coded in
the same manner no matter who the coder is. If coders abide by the
guidelines and standards, efficiency should remain consistent, even
as codes continue to be revised or added.
Outpatient and inpatient coding standards differ slightly but are
overall the same process. Outpatient encounters can address just
signs and symptoms, with no specific diagnosis or cause and
inpatient encounters can code inconclusive diagnoses, but outpatient
encounters cannot. Also, outpatient encounters codes can account
for test results and lab reports, however, this is not the case for
inpatient encounters. Although there are differences between
inpatient and outpatient encounters, there are clearly defined
guidelines and standards for both ensuring consistency when coding
(Jurek & Mosay, 2017).
Reference
Jurek. J. & Mosay. S. (2017). Conquer Medical Coding 2018 : A
Critical Thinking Approach with Coding Simulations. F. A. Davis
Company. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/lib/
snhu-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5266018
