Looking for resources for ICD-9 codes

Question

We have been asked by a client to incorporate ICD-9 codes into a system.

I'm looking for a good resource to get a complete listing of codes and descriptions that will end up in a SQL database.

Unfortunately a web service is out of the question as a fair amount of the time folks will be off line using the application.

I've found http://icd9cm.chrisendres.com/ and http://www.icd9data.com/ but neither offer downloads/exports of the data that I could find.

I also found http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MinimumDataSets20/07_RAVENSoftware.asp which has a database of the ICD-9 codes but they are not in the correct format and I'm not 100% sure how to properly convert (It shows the code 5566 which is really 556.6 but I can't find a rule as to how/when to convert the code to include a decimal)

I'm tagging this with medical and data since I'm not 100% sure where it should really be tagged...any help there would also be appreciated.

Answer 1

Google is your FRIEND.

A few seconds work leads one to http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd9cm.htm where you can order the CD-ROM.

Answer 2

I finally found the following:

"The field for the ICD-9-CM Principal and Other Diagnosis Codes is six characters in length, with the decimal point implied between the third and fourth digit for all diagnosis codes other than the V codes. The decimal is implied for V codes between the second and third digit."

So I was able to get a hold of a complete ICD-9 list and reformat as required.

Answer 3

You might find that the ICD-9 codes follow the following format:

• All codes are 6 characters long
• The decimal point comes between the 3rd and 4th characters
• If the code starts with a V character the decimal point comes between the 2nd and 3rd characters

Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ICD-9_codes