Hello Doctors,
There is known issue regarding the addition of legal blindness in USA to the problem list in CPRS. The following information has been disseminated to the field previously but may not have disseminated to all providers. You will not be able to select Legal blindness to add to the problem list, as the problem list identifies the condition based on SNOMED codes. SNOMED codes are determined by a separate entity outside of the VA. There is no SNOMED code for legal blindness. As result is it no longer an option on the problem list.
You can manually enter legal blindness. Doing so will generate an R69 code attached to the diagnosis as an erroneous mapping. You will get this alert ” A suitable term was not found based on user input and current defaults. If you proceed with this nonspecific term, an ICD code of “R69 – ILLNESS, UNSPECIFIED” will be filed. Use legal blindness?” Because it will automatically generate the R69 code then the local facility will need to correct it. Attempts to correct it locally should be made within the problem list (remove it from the list and add the appropriate code). If those attempts are not successful, then contact with the national team may be necessary to investigate the issue and determine if mapping was changed at a higher level.
The NTRT site contains the information to submit NTRT requests and may be able to assist with any errors that can’t be corrected locally. Please try the local fix first though.
NTRT – Home (sharepoint.com) and VHA OI SDD HDS NTRT <VHAOISDDHDSNTRT@va.gov>
Please note that we have had providers try the NTRT requests but have yet to see any correction.
The suggestion is to use another diagnosis code on the problem list that has a SNOMED code associated with it.
If you must manually enter the legal blindness diagnosis, please be aware of the erroneous code and mapping it will generate. At this time, we do not know if this will affect your facility or generate any type of a report to any parties.
Here are the steps on how to manually enter:
Go to problem list tab
Click “new problem”
Click “other problem” (towards the bottom)
Type in “Legal Blindness” in Term-to-Search box, it will come back “no entry”. Click “Extend Search”
Dialog box “…. Use Legal Blindness”, click “Yes”
(If you want to, you can also add comment. At the next box, click “add comment”; add “Legal Blindness”, click “OK”)
Please note that the problem list is not used for VERA calculations, so you do not need to enter legal blindness on the problem list for VERA to be captured.
Regards,
Low Vision Subcommittee- Field Advisory Board