Letter: Hospital mortality figures now depend more on how the hospital’s coders perform than on the skills of its doctors and nurses. Some coders believe that they can use information on comorbidities only from the current episode for coding purposes whereas others use information from previous episodes. Such variations are widespread, and the responsible bodies such as NHS classifications service need to produce clear guidelines to standardize coding across the country.
Language: en
", language="en", issn="0959-8138", doi="10.1136/bmj.c139", url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c139" }