A system for coding the presenting requests of ambulatory patients

Effective methods developed to review and study the care of patients in hospital have not been applicable to ambulatory care, in which definitive diagnosis is the exception rather than the rule. A reasonable alternative to using diagnosis as the basis for assessing ambulatory care is to use the problems or requests presented by the patients themselves. A system has been developed for classifying and coding this information for flexible computer retrieval. Testing indicates that the system is simple in design, easily mastered by nonphysicians and provides reliable, useful data at a low cost.