Questions for Dr. Stern
About Your Urgent Care Center
149. I had a 28 female, she thought that there was a tampon left in her vagina and on her speculum / pelvic exam nothing was found and the patient did not have any symptom. My question is - can you still diagnose this as foreign body in the vagina? Thanks.
Thanks for contacting Practice Velocity, the leader in charting, coding and billing software for urgent care centers.
As a general rule, one should not choose a specific diagnosis, unless that diagnosis is correct. In this case, it is not correct to diagnose a vaginal foreign body, because there was no actual foreign body.If you do not have a specific diagnosis, then it is usually best to refer to the patient’s complaint when choosing the ICD-9 code.
In this case, the symptom was a foreign body sensation in the vagina. The most anatomically focal code for this complaint seems to be 789.9--Other symptoms involving abdomen and pelvis. Another code that you could use in addition to (or instead of) 789.9 would be V65.5--Person with feared complaint in whom no diagnosis was made.
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Practice Velocity is involved in helping urgent care centers in several ways. Let me review several of our affiliated businesses (all owned by the same three urgent care physicians):
- Practice Velocity: software solutions for marketing, charting, automated coding, billing, occupational medicine protocols and collections.
- NMN Consultants: has consulted more than 100 startup urgent care centers. Consulting services include pro-forma help, purchasing advice, floor plan review, and a checklist of over 1,500 items to complete in the startup of an urgent care center.
- PV Billing® : with over 50 billers, we provide full-service billing services and managed care contracting and credentialing for urgent care centers in many states.
- Physicians Immediate Care: We have operated urgent care centers for over twenty years, and our twelve-clinic network is the foundation and launching pad for all of our other businesses. We will be opening two additional centers circa June, 2008. We have done one joint-venture clinic and are actively developing a framework for (but are not yet offering) franchising opportunities.
We would be delighted to host your team for a full-day tour of our urgent care centers and software company. Feel free to call and schedule a visit to our urgent care headquarters (only one hour from O’Hare Airport). Over 300 urgent care professionals took advantage of tours of our urgent care operations last year. During the tour, we outline our entire operation, including:
- Reception
- Marketing
- Site selection
- Added services
- Occupational medicine
- Patient flow
- Whatever else you wish to review
We would be delighted to serve you in your new endeavor. To schedule a web demo or phone call or to schedule a tour of our headquarters, call 888-357-4209 and ask for Dana (ext. 2051).
