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Death codes list

CDM Builders
#1

Hello all,
I have a question about ICD codes that can indicate death (but not necessarily).

If patient has a record with a code from the list below (there are more of similar codes, these are just examples), and after such diagnosis he has no more records in database, can we consider him dead?

E950 Suicide and self-inflicted poisoning by solid or liquid substances
E953 Suicide and self-inflicted injury by hanging strangulation and suffocation
E910 Accidental drowning and submersion
E913 Accidental mechanical suffocation
I46.9 Cardiac arrest, unspecified

Thank you in advance.
Irina

#2

@IYabbarova:

Not sure why this isn’t part of the dicussion in the other Forum post, but it is really up to the ETL business rules. In other words, depends on the database, and how much you can rely on absence of data being a reliable indicator of really nothing happening. In many EHR system, if the patient really had one of those serious conditions and then the data end, it may well be that he or she just moved to a hospice or nursing home, and no longer goes to the doctor from whom the EHR is sourced. If the data come from insurance claims the enrollment usually stops quickly when a patient dies. Sometimes they even tell you that the cause for the discountinuation was death.

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