Now, patients at medical college to be identified by ‘global’ code

Agra: Doctors at S N Medical College here will now mention the International classification diseases (ICD) code on every prescription. The ICD is used to translate diagnoses of diseases and other health problems from words into an alphanumeric code. This permits easy storage and analysis of patients' data.

The move will help the health department in planning policies regarding a disease. A team of King George’s Medical University (KGMU) from Lucknow visited S N Medical College on Wednesday to assist the latter in implementation of the code process.

Talking to TOI, KGMU professor Major V P Shrivastva said, “Our team visited S N Medical College to guide the doctors about the implementation of ICD-10 guidelines as instructed by the Medical Council of India. These guidelines are mandatory for all medical colleges. With the use of these codes, any qualified doctor can easily understand the type and nature of the disease of the patients across the country. This will help patients to get similar treatment in government and private medical colleges across the country.”

Spokesperson of S N Medical college Dr Shailesh Chowdhary said, “Due to shortage of staff, we were not able to implement the guidelines. Now, we have demanded for 10 experts who can handle the entire process. We will also send a team to either Lucknow or Mohali to learn the coding concept.”