Preliminary study of patient safety and quality use cases for ICD-11 MMS

This study investigated how well-suited the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision, for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics, (ICD-11 MMS) is for 2 morbidity use cases, patient safety and quality, examining the level of detail captured, and evaluating the necessity for the development of a US clinical modification (CM).

Utilizing the 5 NCVHS-specified perspectives plus the consumer perspective, a framework was created of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) use cases. Analysis yielded candidate source criteria for use in case evaluation. Patient safety and quality were chosen because they are relevant across all perspectives.Granularity differences and content coverage of ICD-11 MMS entities were assessed pre- and post-coordination to determine suitability for the 2 use cases. Pressure ulcers, a common condition across 3 patient safety applications, became the focus for comparing ICD-10-CM codes to ICD-11 MMS codes. For 3 electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs), the evaluation centered on specified value sets for ischemic stroke, hypertension, and diabetes.

For pressure ulcers, the ICD-11 MMS was found to exceed ICD-10-CM capabilities via post-coordinated extension codes. For the 3 eCQM value sets explored, the ICD-11 MMS fully represented the disease concepts when post-coordinated code clusters were used.

The examples from the patient safety and quality use cases evaluated in this study are appropriate for ICD-11 MMS. It captures greater detail than ICD-10-CM, and ICD-11 MMS specificity would benefit both use cases. The authors believe this preliminary study indicates the US should invest resources to explore adopting the WHO ICD-11 MMS and tooling and guidelines to implement post-coordination.