Discordance in current procedural terminology coding for pediatric orthopaedic surgeries between residents and attending surgeons: a retrospective comparative study

Abstract

Background: The current procedural terminology (CPT) coding system is used in medical record maintenance and billing. CPT coding is a skill that residents should acquire through training. The purpose of this study was to assess concordance between attending and resident coding practices in pediatric orthopaedic surgery. Methods: Case log reports were collected from 14 residents on the pediatric orthopaedic surgery service over 2 yr, then compared to operating room billing records from three pediatric orthopaedic surgeons. CPT code concordance rates were generated between residents and attendings for individual cases. Results: Three attending surgeons performed 1,372 cases over the two years. To accommodate cases in which multiple residents participated, 38 cases were duplicated (1,410 total attending cases). There was no corresponding resident case entry for 31.3% of attending cases. Of the 968 cases logged by residents, a 78.2% concordance rate was observed. Residents who rotated on pediatric orthopaedics only as a post-graduate year (PGY) 3 during the study period exhibited 73.8% concordance rates, versus residents that rotated as both a PGY-3 and PGY-4 who exhibited 78.7% and those who rotated only as a PGY-4 who exhibited 82.0% (P<0.001). Closed reduction and percutaneous pinning of supracondylar humerus fractures had the highest concordance rate (93.5%) among ACGME-required minimum category cases. Conclusions: Residents and attendings demonstrate a relatively high CPT code concordance among pediatric orthopaedic surgeries. Concordance rates were significantly higher when reported by more experienced residents. Among minimum category cases, percutaneous pinning of supracondylar humeral fractures demonstrated the highest concordance rate. Level of Evidence: Level IV