Experience with coding accuracy for endophthalmitis.

The Endophthalmitis Population Study of Western Australia aims to investigate the epidemiology of endophthalmitis, a potentially sight-threatening infection of the internal eye, in Western Australia in 1980-1998. Cases of endophthalmitis were identified from coded hospital discharge data, surgeon logbooks, and hospital microbiology and anaesthetic databases. This process uncovered not only widespread miscoding for endophthalmitis, but also systematic misuse of the endophthalmitis codes for external eye infections. The level of miscoding and code misuse has improved since the mid-1990s, and probably reflects the introduction of coding standards and trained coders into the Western Australian health system.