Need a little clarification on coding a Dog Bite. We have a Healthcare office & Urgent Care all in one. This one came in under urgent care. Here is the notes from the encounter:
Location: right lower leg posterior calf region. The wound was irrigated with sterile normal saline and debrided of any foreign material or devitalized tissue. Bleeding controlled prior to arrival. Puncture marks closed with steri strip and covered with Telfa and secured with coban dressing. Sterile wound dressing applied. The patient tolerated procedure well. Wound care instructions were given, and patient was instructed to return for redness, warmth, or swelling of the skin, red streaking, pus, increasing pain, fevers, or any other signs or symptoms of infection.
Everything I am reading says that since steri strips were used that we can only code an E&M for wound repair, but does that include the "wound care/irrigation, etc?"
I'm new to this type of coding so just want to know how much we can actually bill.
Location: right lower leg posterior calf region. The wound was irrigated with sterile normal saline and debrided of any foreign material or devitalized tissue. Bleeding controlled prior to arrival. Puncture marks closed with steri strip and covered with Telfa and secured with coban dressing. Sterile wound dressing applied. The patient tolerated procedure well. Wound care instructions were given, and patient was instructed to return for redness, warmth, or swelling of the skin, red streaking, pus, increasing pain, fevers, or any other signs or symptoms of infection.
Everything I am reading says that since steri strips were used that we can only code an E&M for wound repair, but does that include the "wound care/irrigation, etc?"
I'm new to this type of coding so just want to know how much we can actually bill.