Adverse drug events in German hospital routine data: A validation of International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) diagnostic codes

Objective Adverse drug events (ADEs) during hospital stays are a significant problem of healthcare systems. Established monitoring systems lack completeness or are cost intensive. Routinely assigned International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) codes could complement existing systems for ADE identification. To analyze the potential of using routine data for ADE detection, the validity of a set of ICD codes was determined focusing on hospital-acquired events. Material and methods The study utilized routine data from four German hospitals covering the years 2014 and 2015. A set of ICD, 10(th) Revision, German Modification (ICD-10-GM) diagnoses coded most frequently in the routine data and identified as codes indicating ADEs was analyzed. Data from psychiatric and psychotherapeutic departments were excluded. Retrospective chart review was performed to calculate positive predictive values (PPV) and sensitivity. Results Of 807 reviewed ADE codes, 91.2% (95%-confidence interval: 89.0, 93.1) were identified as disease in the medical records and 65.1% (61.7, 68.3) were confirmed as ADE. For code groups being predominantly hospital-acquired, 78.5% (73.7, 82.9) were confirmed as ADE, ranging from 68.5% to 94.4% dependent on the ICD code. However, sensitivity of inpatient ADEs was relatively low. 49.7% (45.2, 54.2) of 495 identified hospital-acquired ADEs were coded as disease in the routine data, from which a subgroup of 12.1% (9.4,15.3) was coded as drug-associated disease. Conclusions ICD codes from routine data can provide an important contribution to the development and improvement of ADE monitoring systems. Documentation quality is crucial to further increase the PPV, and actions against under-reporting of ADEs in routine data need to be taken.