Home Alone Holiday Hijinx

by Dianna Foley, RHIA, CHPS, CCS, CDIP

Test your ICD-10-CM injury and external cause knowledge by coding the scenarios below. 

The Klutz family is taking a well-deserved hiatus (probably to recuperate from all the torment they have been through). However, you can still practice your injury and external cause coding with this Home Alone themed story.

Watching Home Alone each year has become a Klutz family Christmas holiday tradition. This year, Mrs. Klutz is looking at the movie through new eyes as she has recently decided to return to school and is studying Health Information Management in order to become a medical coder. After her first semester coding ICD-10-CM, Mrs. Klutz was eager to practice what she had learned. This time, when the family gathered for the traditional viewing of Home Alone, she noted some of the injuries that occurred to the thieves, Marv and Harry. You can practice assigning codes for these and compare your answers with what Mrs. Klutz assigned. Mrs. Kultz just focused on the actual diagnosis and external event. She did not assign place of occurrence, activity, or status codes.

1. Harry burns the palm of his left hand when he touches a doorknob that Kevin heated. Blisters resulted.
2. Marv had broken glass, from crushed ornaments, embedded in his feet after climbing in through a window while barefoot.
3. Marv also manages to step on a nail, which pierces his right foot.
4. Harry’s scalp is burned by a blowtorch. The burns blister immediately.
5. Marv sustains contusions of his nose and forehead after being struck by a falling iron.
6. Marv gets a concussion with brief LOC from being struck in the back of the head by a shovel.
7. Harry is struck by a swinging paint can, falls down the stairs, and loses his gold tooth.

Mrs. Klutz was glad that her children were safe at home without injury this holiday…at least for now!  

Click HERE for the answers.