Clinical Coding and External Causes of Injury: The Importance of Documentation

Injuries are a prominent cause of morbidity globally. In the United Kingdom (UK) alone, there were over 500,000 emergency hospital admissions for injuries within 2014/15.1 Causes of injury are captured in the clinical coding of hospital activity and this data underpins national datasets such as Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). Knowing the context of an injury permits individualised patient care and this information is crucial for surveillance, intervention evaluation and policy creation.2,3 Monitoring patterns in assaults, unintentional injuries and self-inflicted trauma can lead to the creation of injury-prevention programmes which could help reduce the volumes of avoidable hospital admissions.

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