The usefulness of the Georgetown Home Health Care Classification system for coding patient problems and nursing interventions in psychiatric home care.

Abstract

Although several coding systems for standardizing the clinical language of nursing practice have been developed and tested, no studies have been found that examine the usefulness of such a system for psychiatric home care, a rapidly emerging area of nursing practice. This study examined the usefulness of the Georgetown Home Health Care Classification system for the coding of patient problems and nursing interventions in the psychiatric home care setting. Although most problems and interventions could be classified with codes from the Georgetown system, some new codes were needed to prevent loss of potentially significant psychiatric data.