· Coding tips: In the alphabetic index under “Syndrome, systemic inflammatory response,” you are led only to the non-infectious SIRS (R65.10 Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) of non-infectious origin without acute organ dysfunction and R65.11 Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) of non-infectious origin with acute organ …
· Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) of non-infectious origin with acute organ dysfunction. 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Billable/Specific Code. R65.11 is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes. Short description: SIRS of non-infectious origin w acute organ dysfunction
· R65- Symptoms and signs specifically associated with systemic inflammation and infection › 2022 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code R65.1 2022 ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code R65.1 Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) of non-infectious origin 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Non-Billable/Non-Specific Code
· The patient is diagnosed with SIRS due to acute pancreatitis. Code this as: K85.90 Acute pancreatitis without necrosis or infection, unspecified R65.10 Sepsis Sepsis is an extreme response to infection that develops when the chemicals the immune system releases into the bloodstream to fight infection cause widespread inflammation.
Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) of non-infectious origin without acute organ dysfunction. R65. 10 is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes.
Coding sepsis requires a minimum of two codes: a code for the systemic infection (e.g., 038. xx) and the code 995.91, SIRS due to infectious process without organ dysfunction. If no causal organism is documented within the medical record, query the physician or assign code 038.9, Unspecified septicemia.
Sepsis is the systemic response to infection and is defined as the presence of SIRS in addition to a documented or presumed infection. Severe sepsis meets the aforementioned criteria and is associated with organ dysfunction, hypoperfusion, or hypotension.
Conclusion. We found SIRS status on admission to be moderately associated with infection and strongly related to 28-day mortality.
Sepsis is a systemic response to infection. It is identical to SIRS, except that it must result specifically from infection rather than from any of the noninfectious insults that may also cause SIRS (see the image below).
Four SIRS criteria were defined, namely tachycardia (heart rate >90 beats/min), tachypnea (respiratory rate >20 breaths/min), fever or hypothermia (temperature >38 or <36 °C), and leukocytosis, leukopenia, or bandemia (white blood cells >1,200/mm3, <4,000/mm3 or bandemia ≥10%).
Excerpt. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is an exaggerated defense response of the body to a noxious stressor (infection, trauma, surgery, acute inflammation, ischemia or reperfusion, or malignancy, to name a few) to localize and then eliminate the endogenous or exogenous source of the insult.
According to AHA Coding Clinic® (Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 4), when a patient has SIRS and a localized infection, sepsis can no longer be coded and an ICD-10-CM code for sepsis cannot be assigned unless the physician specifically documents sepsis.
SIRS criteria are mostly used as a screening tool to identify patients that may need further workup for sepsis and severe sepsis. In the emergency department it is a triage tool that helps determine patient acuity and identify patients that are potentially septic and in need of further screening.
Listen to pronunciation. (sis-TEH-mik in-FLA-muh-TOR-ee reh-SPONTS SIN-drome) A serious condition in which there is inflammation throughout the whole body. It may be caused by a severe bacterial infection (sepsis), trauma, or pancreatitis.
It is marked by fast heart rate, low blood pressure, low or high body temperature, and low or high white blood cell count. The condition may lead to multiple organ failure and shock. Also called systemic inflammatory response syndrome.
Systemic means affecting the entire body, rather than a single organ or body part. For example, systemic disorders, such as high blood pressure, or systemic diseases, such as the flu, affect the entire body. An infection that is in the bloodstream is called a systemic infection.
Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) of non-infectious origin 1 underlying condition, such as: 2 heatstroke (#N#ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code T67.0#N#Heatstroke and sunstroke#N#2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Non-Billable/Non-Specific Code#N#Use Additional#N#code (s) to identify any associated complications of heatstroke, such as:#N#coma and stupor ( R40.-)#N#rhabdomyolysis ( M62.82)#N#systemic inflammatory response syndrome ( R65.1-)#N#T67.0-) 3 injury and trauma ( S00-T88#N#ICD-10-CM Range S00-T88#N#Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes#N#S00-S09 Injuries to the head#N#S10-S19 Injuries to the neck#N#S20-S29 Injuries to the thorax#N#S30-S39 Injuries to the abdomen, lower back, lum...#N#S40-S49 Injuries to the shoulder and upper arm#N#S50-S59 Injuries to the elbow and forearm#N#S60-S69 Injuries to the wrist, hand and fingers#N#S70-S79 Injuries to the hip and thigh#N#S80-S89 Injuries to the knee and lower leg#N#S90-S99 Injuries to the ankle and foot#N#T07-T07 Injuries involving multiple body regions#N#T14-T14 Injury of unspecified body region#N#T15-T19 Effects of foreign body entering through...#N#T20-T25 Burns and corrosions of external body su...#N#T26-T28 Burns and corrosions confined to eye and...#N#T30-T32 Burns and corrosions of multiple and uns...#N#T33-T34 Frostbite#N#T36-T50 Poisoning by, adverse effect of and unde...#N#T51-T65 Toxic effects of substances chiefly nonm...#N#T66-T78 Other and unspecified effects of externa...#N#T79-T79 Certain early complications of trauma#N#T80-T88 Complications of surgical and medical ca...#N#)
Short description: SIRS of non-infectious origin. The 2021 edition of ICD-10-CM R65.1 became effective on October 1, 2020.
Sepsis can be caused by fungi, candida, or viruses, as well. It is important to use the Alphabetic Index to select the appropriate code for the systemic infection. For example, if a patient is diagnosed with candidal sepsis due to a candida UTI, you would report B37.7 Candidal sepsis for the principal diagnosis and B37.49 Other urogenital candidiasis for the secondary diagnosis. Do not select a code from A40.- through A41.9.
Documentation issues: When SIRS is documented with an inflammatory condition, such as pancreatitis, the inflammatory condition should be sequenced first, followed by the code for SIRS, R65.1-. When SIRS is documented with an infectious source, for instance, “SIRS due to pneumonia,” only code pneumonia. However, a query for sepsis may be appropriate according to AHA Coding Clinic® (Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 4).
Coding tips: Only one code is needed to report sepsis without organ dysfunction. Most sepsis codes are listed in A40.- through A41.9. If a causal organism is specified, then use the code for sepsis naming the specific organism. Per AHA Coding Clinic® (Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 16), when sepsis is linked to an infection with an organism, assign the combination code for sepsis including the organism. For example, sepsis due to E. coli UTI can be coded as A41.51 and N39.0.
For instance, if sepsis, pneumonia, and acute renal failure due to dehydration are documented, the code for severe sepsis may not be assigned because the acute renal failure is not stated as due to or associated with sepsis. If the documentation is unclear, query the physician.
Severe sepsis is sepsis with acute organ dysfunction. It occurs when one or more of the body’s organs is damaged from the inflammatory response. Any organ can be affected.
SIRS is an inflammatory state affecting the whole body. It is an exaggerated defense response of the body to a noxious stressor, such as infection or trauma, that triggers an acute inflammatory reaction, which may progress and result in the formation of blood clots, impaired fibrinolysis, and organ failure.
Septic shock refers to circulatory failure associated with severe sepsis. It is a life-threatening condition that happens when the exaggerated response to infection leads to dangerously low blood pressure (hypotension). Septic shock is a form of organ failure.
Table 1 includes the usual clinical parameters and then adds others, such as hyperglycemia in the absence of diabetes, elevated CRP, hypotension, hypoxemia, hyperlactatemia, and other evidence of organ dysfunction such as coagulopathy, creatinine increase ≥ 0.5. In previous articles, I have noted that “SIRS” always included other clinical indicators (including all the elements of the SOFA, or Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, score). This table, and its descendants in later sepsis literature represented why I drew this conclusion.
Many of you may know that I have fully embraced the definition of sepsis as life-threatening organ dysfunction arising due to a dysregulated host response to infection : the definition from the Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3, JAMA 2016; 315 (8):801-810) and the one now accepted by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign.
These criteria are sensitive, but not specific. It has been observed that the SIRS criteria do not necessarily indicate a dysregulated, life-threatening response. That response may be adaptive. Conversely, a patient can have sepsis without meeting the requisite minimum number of SIRS criteria.
Sepsis-3 does not have a category of sepsis without organ dysfunction. Since the new definition narrows the scope, it is obvious that the payers would gravitate towards it, because it reduces the number of patients in the high-weighted, high-reimbursement sepsis DRG.
The SIRS subset is not defunct, even if you totally buy into Sepsis-3. It is still valuable to trigger us to take a close, hard look at each patient and determine why their vital signs are deranged. In the ED, we used to say, “never let a tachycardic patient go home without an explanation.”.
Tim pointed out that the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) has not endorsed Sepsis-3, so there still may be a loophole for holdouts. He also thinks I am wrong when I refer to the universally recognized clinical elements of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) – tachycardia, tachypnea, fever or hypothermia, leukocytosis, leukopenia, or bandemia – as only a subset of the variables that herald the systemic inflammatory response. It is my opinion that none of those abnormalities are exclusive to the systemic inflammatory response, and they do not de facto constitute the syndrome.
Sepsis-3 states that the condition “is a syndrome without, at present, a validated criterion standard diagnostic test.” It also notes that “there are, as yet, no simple and unambiguous clinical criteria or biological, imaging, or laboratory features that uniquely identify a septic patient.”
Provider documentation of streptococcal septicemia is considered a generalized infection caused by a streptococcal organism, and only code 038.0 should be assigned. The coder may also want to query the physician in order to determine if the patient has sepsis.
Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is defined as a clinical response to an insult, infection, or trauma that includes a systemic inflammation as well as elevated or reduced temperature, rapid heart rate, rapid respiration, and elevated white blood count. According to the American College of Chest Physicians and the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the clinical manifestations of SIRS include:
Sepsis is defined as SIRS due to an infection. The inclusion term sepsis was added to code 995.91, SIRS due to infectious process without organ dysfunction. Although sepsis and septicemia may be used interchangeably by the provider, from a coding perspective they are not synonymous. Coders should query the physician for clarification when appropriate.
Providers often use the term urosepsis to describe both septicemia and a urinary tract infection. For accurate coding, coders should determine if the term urosepsis is being used to describe sepsis or urinary tract infection. However, if a coder finds conflicting documentation within the medical record stating both a diagnosis of urosepsis and septicemia, the physician should be queried to determine which diagnosis is intended.
Severe sepsis is defined as SIRS due to an infection that progresses to organ dysfunction, such as kidney or heart failure. In order to code a patient with severe sepsis, the documentation within the medical record should clearly indicate that organ failure is related to sepsis. If the documentation is not clear, always query the physician for accurate coding.
Septic shock generally refers to circulatory failure associated with severe sepsis, and therefore represents a type of acute organ dysfunction. 5 Therefore, septic shock meets the definition for severe sepsis. Cases of septic shock should follow coding and sequencing guidelines for severe sepsis. In addition to codes for severe sepsis, code 785.52, Septic shock, should also be placed as a secondary diagnosis.
Coding a chart with a sepsis diagnosis can prove challenging for coders . The coding guidelines for sepsis as well as ambiguous provider documentation can often mean an extended length of time reviewing a chart only to place it on hold for a physician query. This column outlines the clinical differences between systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock as well as coding guidelines for each diagnosis.
If the terms sepsis, severe sepsis, or SIRS are used with an underlying infection other than septicemia, such as pneumonia, cellulitis or a nonspecified urinary tract infection, code 038.9 should be assigned first, then code 995.91, followed by the code for ...
This is because the use of the terms sepsis or SIRS indicates that the patient’s infection has advanced to the point of a systemic infection so the systemic infection should be sequenced before the localized infection . The instructional note under subcategory 995.9 instructs to assign the underlying condition first.
The I-9 Coding Guidelines pg. 16 1) a. (ii) states SIRS generally refers to a systemic response to infection, trauma/burn or other insult (such as cancer) with symptoms including fever, tachycardia, tachypena & leukocytosis. (iii) Sepsis generally refers to SIRS due to infection. Therefore, in my opinion,it would be coded as sepsis due to UTI ...
Since the creation of the series of codes for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), effective October 1, 2002 , and the inclusion of the term sepsis under code 995.91, Systemic inflammatory response syndrome due to infectious process without organ dysfunction, effective with the October 1, 2003 update, there have been many questions on the proper coding of infections. The information in this article refers to coding of sepsis in adult, non-gravid patients. Separate codes exist for sepsis complicating pregnancy and in newborns.