Validity of anaesthetic complication coding data as a clinical indicator.

Clinical indicators using routinely collected International Statistical Classification of Diseases, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) data offer promise as tools for improvement of quality. The ICD-10-AM is the coding system used by Australian administrators to summarise information from the clinical record to describe a patient's hospital encounter. The use of anaesthesia complications as coded by this system has been proposed by two jurisdictions as a monitor of the quality of anaesthetic services. We undertook a review of cases identified by such indicators in a large tertiary hospital. Our results indicate the anaesthesia indicator dataset proposed by the Victorian and Queensland Health departments appears to have little clinical or quality improvement relevance.