The Major Diagnostic Categories (MDC) are formed by dividing all possible principal diagnoses (from

ICD-9-CM The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a globally used medical classification that is used in epidemiology, health management and clinical diagnosis. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the direc ...

) into 25 mutually exclusive diagnosis areas. MDC codes, like

diagnosis-related group Diagnosis-related group (DRG) is a system to classify hospital cases into one of originally 467 groups, with the last group (coded as 470 through v24, 999 thereafter) being "Ungroupable". This system of classification was developed as a collabora ...

(DRG) codes, are primarily a claims and administrative data element unique to the

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medical care reimbursement system. DRG codes also are mapped, or grouped, into MDC codes. The diagnoses in each MDC correspond to a single organ system or cause and, in general, are associated with a particular medical specialty. MDC 1 to MDC 23 are grouped according to principal diagnoses. Patients are assigned to MDC 24 (Multiple Significant

Trauma Trauma most often refers to: *Psychological trauma, in psychology and psychiatric medicine, refers to severe mental and emotional injury caused by distressing events *Traumatic injury, sudden physical injury caused by an external force, which doe ...

) with at least two significant trauma diagnosis codes (either as principal or secondaries) from different body site categories. Patients assigned to MDC 25 (

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Infections) must have a principal diagnosis of an HIV Infection or a principal diagnosis of a significant HIV related condition and a secondary diagnosis of an HIV Infection. MDC 0, unlike the others, can be reached from a number of diagnosis/procedure situations, all related to transplants. This is due to the expense involved for the transplants so designated and because these transplants can be needed for a number of reasons which do not all come from one diagnosis domain. DRGs which reach MDC 0 are assigned to the MDC for the principal diagnosis instead of to the MDC associated with the designated DRG.

List of Major Diagnostic Categories

See also

References

External links