HIV
How do your facilities handle "HIV" documentation? What about the coding clinic that says if once coded as B20 the patients condition should always be coded to B20? Are you querying with each admission or checking prior accounts to see if ever coded to B20? We have a few patients that we know have been diagnosed with HIV ds/AIDS but are on antiretrovirals and are asymptomatic. We are getting inconsistent answers to queries on the same patient on each admission.
Comments
If not clearly meeting criteria for AIDS (and if clinically supported) we query .
Suggest citation of the CDC definitions as some providers do not distinguish HIV Infection from AIDS
AIDS: Meets the current CDC Definition of AIDS - HIV-infected persons who have less than 200 CD4+ T-lymphocytes/uL, or CD4+ T-lymphocyte percentage of total lymphocytes of less than 14, and/or an AIDS-Defining Illness or HIV-Related Disease. See the reverse side for examples.
Per CDC publication Vol 60 RR-17 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00018871.htm
Relating to the classification HIV Infection, once a patient is diagnosed with AIDS the diagnosis still stands even if, after treatment, the CD4+ T cell count rises to above 200 per µL of blood or other AIDS-defining illnesses are cured.
Source: Per CDC publication Vol 60 RR-17 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00018871.htmPaul Evans, RHIA, CCDS