Provides an explanation of the information contained in the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS) Clinical Code Table.
The clinical code table contains the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM), the Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI) and 23 fields for each code.
The clinical code tables do not contain ICD-10-AM/ACHI guidelines and/or conventions eg, Excludes or Includes notes or any other text related to the code apart from the official full text descriptor.
The clinical code tables (or part of) for ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS are a licensed product, therefore are not available through this web site, although the documentation below relates directly to them. For clinical code table inquiries please email the Coding Helpdesk.
All fields in the clinical code tables are listed below, by their actual column name and description. The name the field may have previously been listed under is displayed in brackets. Note that there has been no change to the structure of this table, the actual naming of the fields, or the intended meaning of the field attributes.
Fields in the Clinical Code table
clinical_code (CLINCODE)
This column contains ICD-10-AM disease, injury, external cause, supplementary, morphology and ACHI (procedure) codes. Each ICD-10-AM/ACHI code is unique when used in combination with the clinical code type field.
clinical_code_type (CCTYP)
This field shows the clinical code type associated with each ICD-10-AM/ACHI code. It indicates which section of the ICD-10-AM/ACHI classification each code belongs to. The values in this field are:
A = diagnosis
B = injury
E = external cause of injury
O = operation/procedure
M = morphology (pathology)
V = supplementary classification/health factors
clinical_code_system (SYS)
This field identifies the edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Edition, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) and the Australian Classification of Health Interventions (ACHI) to which each code belongs. See table below for examples. For a complete list of the clinical code system values see the Clinical Coding System code table.
| Clinical Code System | Clinical System Description |
|---|---|
| 12 | ICD-10-AM/ACHI Third Edition |
| 13 | ICD-10-AM-ACHI Sixth Edition |
| 14 | ICD-10-AM-ACHI Eighth Edition |
| 15 | ICD-10-AM-ACHI Eleventh Edition |
clinical_code_description (DESCRSHRT)
The ICD-10-AM/ACHI code text descriptors; this was 100 characters wide, however was increased to 200 characters from 1 July 2014 to accommodate ICD-10-AM/ACHI Eighth Edition code descriptors in full.
death_flag (DEATH)
A flag indicating which ICD-10-AM codes are likely to be a cause of death.
If the event end type (discharge type) code on an event record is ‘DD’ (died), or ‘ED’ (died while still in Emergency department acute facility) then the record must contain at least one ICD-10-AM code for which the death flag in the code table has the value of ‘Y’.
gender_flag (SEX)
A flag indicating which sex is appropriate for each ICD-10-AM/ACHI code.
If the gender flag for an ICD-10-AM/ACHI code is ‘B’, then an event record may contain either ‘M’ (male) or ‘F’ (female) or ‘U’ (unknown) or ‘I’ (indeterminate) in the sex type field. Otherwise, the sex type code on the event record must correspond to the value of the gender flag in the code table.
low_age (LOWAGE)
An age below which a disease, injury, external cause or procedure is not expected to be reported.
high_age (HIGHAGE)
An age above which a disease, injury, external cause or procedure is not expected to be reported.
normal_nz_flag (NZNORM)
A flag indicating whether a diagnosis or external cause of injury is likely to occur in New Zealand. A flag of ‘N’ indicates the diagnosis or external cause of injury code is unlikely to occur in New Zealand.
external_cause_flag (EXTCAUSE)
A flag indicating that an external cause code is also required to describe the circumstances of injury.
If the external cause flag for an ICD-10-AM code is set to ‘Y’, there must be an external cause code present in the event record.
unacceptable_diagnosis_flag (NONPDX)
A flag indicating that the code should not be usedreported as the principal diagnosis. If an ICD-10-AM/ACHI code is an unacceptable principal diagnosis the flag is set to ‘Y’.
nonspecific_diagnosis_flag
A flag indicating that the ICD-10-AM code reported is not specific enough for principal diagnosis, and more information is needed about the diagnosis.
operation_flag (OPFLG)
A flag indicating whether an operation date is required for an operation/procedure.
If the operation flag is set to ‘Y’ then an operation/procedure date does not have to be provided. If the operation flag is set to ‘N’ an operation/procedure date must be reported.
collection_type
A grouping flag, used for data analysis.
| Collection Type | Collection Type Description |
|---|---|
| B | Birth (neonate) |
| C | Cancer |
| M | Birth (mother) |
| P | Psychiatric (Mental Health) |
dagger_asterisk
A dagger denotes a code describing the aetiology or underlying cause of a disease, and should always be assigned together with the manifestation (asterisk) code. Dagger codes are represented by a ‘1’ in the field.
An asterisk denotes a code describing the manifestation of a disease and should always be assigned together with the appropriate aetiology (dagger) code. Asterisk codes are represented by a ‘2’ in the field.
Prior to ICD-10-AM Eighth Edition the dagger code had to be always sequenced before the asterisk code. However, from ICD-10-AM Eighth Edition the rule was revised to allow the asterisk code to be sequenced before the dagger code.
category (CAT)
A code that groups ICD-10-AM codes together at the third character level. All ICD-10-AM codes except for procedures and morphology codes have category numbers. A list of category codes and their descriptions is available from the Ministry of Health on request.
sub_category (SUBCAT)
A sub-category groups ICD-10-AM codes together at the fourth character level. All ICD-10-AM except for procedures and morphology have sub-category numbers . A list of sub-category codes and their descriptions is available from the Ministry of Health on request.
block (BLOCK)
The block groups procedure codes together. Procedure codes in ACHI are organised on an anatomical basis, therefore, are not in numerical order. To facilitate location of a procedure code in ACHI the block system was introduced eg, [984] Laparoscopy, [985] Laparotomy. Each procedure code has an associated block eg, 30373-00 [985] Exploratory laparotomy. A list of block numbers and their descriptions is available from the Ministry of Health on request.
chapter
These are the chapter headings in the ICD-10-AM classification. ICD-10-AM consists of 22 Chapters, which are mostly organised by body system eg, Chapter 9 Diseases of the circulatory system (I00-I99).
All ICD-10-AM codes except procedures and morphology have a chapter value. A list of chapter values and their descriptions is available from the Ministry of Health on request.
sub_chapter
The sub-chapter value is an identifier that groups codes as per the sub-chapter headings in the ICD-10-AM classification eg, 093 = I20-I25 Ischaemic heart disease.
All ICD-10-AM codes except procedures and morphology have a sub-chapter value.
code_start_date
The code start date is the date from which the ICD-10-AM/ACHI code became active.
code_end_date
This field has been present, but not populated, since the introduction of the ICD-10-AM/ACHI classification system.
eligible_cancer_status
An internal-use value only, identifying records that are relevant to the Cancer Registry. Possible values are ‘A’ = Always registrable, ‘S’ = Seldom registrable, ‘N’ = Never registrable and null.