The 2020 International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification Injury Diagnosis Framework for Categorizing Injuries by Body Region and Nature of Injury.

Abstract

Background-Injury diagnosis frameworks, or matrices, based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) provide standardized categories for reporting injuries by body region and nature of injury. In 2016, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) published a proposed injury diagnosis matrix for use with data coded using the ICD, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). At the time the proposed matrix was developed, ICD-10-CM coded data were not available to evaluate the performance of the proposed matrix. As data became available, NCHS and NCIPC received recommendations from clinicians and researchers to improve the consistency and clinical applicability of categorization of codes within the matrix. This report describes the modifications made to the 2016 proposed ICD-10-CM injury diagnosis matrix and presents the final 2020 ICD-10-CM injury diagnosis matrix. Methods-Comments on the 2016 proposed matrix were received from several federal agencies, military health centers, state health departments, researchers, and others. Additionally, subject matter experts from NCHS, NCIPC, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, and others reviewed code descriptions, coding guidelines, updates to the ICD-10-CM code set, and other materials to identify possible needed changes to the 2016 proposed ICD-10-CM injury diagnosis matrix. Results-Consideration of issues raised by clinicians and researchers and from the internal review resulted in relocation of approximately 3% of the 9,000 codes in the 2016 proposed ICD-10-CM injury diagnosis matrix. These relocations generally involved changes to the assigned nature-of-injury category. Additionally, approximately 200 new injury diagnosis codes not available at the time the 2016 proposed matrix was developed were added to create the final 2020 matrix. Conclusions-The 2020 final ICD-10-CM injury diagnosis matrix provides standard categories for reporting injuries by body region and nature of injury. Use of this tool promotes consistency for comparisons across populations and over time.