# Difficultly Breathing as location



## moshjl (Nov 15, 2010)

If the patient presents to the ED and the CC is difficulty breathing, can that be counted as location? There is no mention of chest pain/cough, etc. Only difficulty breathing, pain 9/10 and started yesterday at 7pm.


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## kmhall (Nov 18, 2010)

You state pain 9/10, where was the pain?  That would be your location.


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## jettagirlfl (Nov 22, 2010)

I would say difficult breathing would be under severity


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## tfischer (Nov 29, 2010)

*Difficulty Breathing*

If the physician is using difficulty breathing as the chief complaint, then it cannot be used again in the HPI. This was talked about at an E/M Coding seminar about a month ago.


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## Lisa Bledsoe (Nov 29, 2010)

tfischer said:


> If the physician is using difficulty breathing as the chief complaint, then it cannot be used again in the HPI. This was talked about at an E/M Coding seminar about a month ago.



What seminar was that and by whom?  If the CC "difficulty breathing" is written by the nurse it is not countable in the HPI, but if the physician states it, it is countable.  This also appears to be a quality to me.


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