In Case of Emergency - Are ICD-10 Codes Enough?

In an acute emergency, the knowledge of the patient's medical history, allergies, implants, and medication can be crucial. ICD-10 code to document medical diagnoses alone often does not contain enough information. Our comparison of 388 documented diagnoses (ICD-10 codes as well as free text) showed that almost 20% of all coded ICD-10 codes contained less information than the documented free text. Thus, if using ICD-10 codes, free text diagnoses must be a necessary item in the upcoming German Medical Emergency DataSet.