Importancia de la codificación de la desnutrición hospitalaria en la gestión clínica

Hospital information systems are basic tools in hospital management. Disease-related undernourishment is still a significant health area of interest among the countries that are members of the European Union (EU) due to its high prevalence and its high costs. The 2008-2013 Strategy “Together for Health” considered in the European Parliament urges the member states to develop initiatives in the field of population education, specialised training, research and good clinical practices. The Spanish Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (SENPE) collaborates in different areas where this strategy is developed, which is an attempt to place disease-related undernourishment in the focus of attention of the National Health System (NHS). We know that coding is a key exercise in health management governed by well-established procedures. A correct coding of hospital undernourishment as a main or secondary diagnosis, as well as of the therapeutic procedures used, helps to get to know the reality of the welfare activity and the consumption of each centre's resources. Aware of the importance of these measures, the SENPE, along with the Spanish Society of Medical Documentation, has contributed to the EU's strategy by developing the SENPE-SEDOM Undernourishment Coding Consensus Document. This document has allowed the coding process of this pathology to be standardised with the assignation of specific codes to specific defining terms and the information on undernourishment, its types and degrees, and the procedures used in the hospitals of our NHS for preventing or treating it to be optimised.