An Evaluation of External Cause-of-Injury Codes Using Hospital Records From the Indian Health Service, 1985

This study examined external cause-of-injury & poisoning codes from American Indian Health Service hospital records in order to evaluate the usefulness of International Classification of Diseases coding. Of the 10,921 hospital discharge records with at least one injury-related diagnosis or health service code, 7.3% were coded as suicide/attempt. The authors conclude that this coding was a valuable, cost-effective method of quantifying & characterizing severe, nonfatal injuries. (13 refs) (SC)