AHA Coding Clinic® for ICD-9 - 2004 Issue 3; Ask the Editor

Postoperative Anemia Secondary to Expected Blood Loss

Our surgeons think that anemia due to an “expected” blood loss is integral to procedures. When we query the physician regarding patients whose lab values have dropped significantly after surgery to levels suggestive of anemia, the physicians are refusing to document anemia due to blood loss even if they monitor and transfuse the patient. They say the patients lost an expected amount of blood. I have read Coding Clinic, Second Quarter 1992, pp. 15-16 and its discussion of post-operative anemia guidelines. But this issue doesn’t give us definitive information to give the physicians that clearly states, “blood loss anemia due to an expected blood loss can be documented and reported when the patient meets the clinical criteria of anemia and the diagnosis meets UHDDS guidelines for reporting other diagnoses.” ...

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