Medical Assistant Knowledge Check: ICD-10-CM Codes, Thermoregulation, and Metric Conversions

First question: a medical assistant is tasked with finding a diagnosis code in the ICD-10-CM. Which of the following should be the assistant's starting point? And the answer to that question is Volume 2, the alphabetic index. What the heck is this all talking about? So first off, what is the ICD-10? It stands for the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision Clinical Modification. So it's all an acronym - it's a system used by healthcare providers to classify and code all diagnoses, symptoms, and procedures. So often it's said that the ICD codes are diagnostic codes, whereas the CPT codes, which are totally different than this, it's a different type of code; those are procedural codes. But here we're looking at the ICD diagnostic codes, and this book of codes is divided into different volumes. You have Volume 1, which is the tabular list of diseases and injuries; we have Volume 2, which is the alphabetic index for diseases and injuries; and Volume 3 is the procedure index, which is for hospital use. So all we want to focus on is the high level, so I would just remember Volume 1 is called the tabular index, and it's organized by body system; Volume 2 is called the alphabetic index, and it's an alphabetical list; whereas Volume 3 is the procedure index and it's used by hospitals to code procedures. And then going back to our question where it's asking which of the following should be our starting point if we're looking to find a diagnostic code, the easiest way to do this is using Volume 2, the alphabetic index, which is why B is our answer. A medical assistant recorded a patient's temperature to be 102.2 Fahrenheit, which is in the fever range. The assistant should identify that which of the following regulates and maintains body temperature? This is all about body systems, and the answer to this question is the hypothalamus. So, the hypothalamus is this region in the brain, and you don't need to know this level of anatomy. I just want to help you be able to visualize that it's an area of the brain. And the hypothalamus acts as the body's thermostat, so it is involved in thermoregulation. And the hypothalamus will induce a fever when it senses it needs to, i.e. there's an infection in the body and the hypothalamus wants to raise the temperature within the body, produce a fever to try and kill off that infection, which is why A is our answer. The thymus is an organ that's located in the thorax that plays an important role in the immune system, and so again just for the sake of visualization, you can see the thymus here. It's in that thorax region which is our chest area, and the thymus has an important function helping blood immune cells to mature. The pituitary gland is a small endocrine gland, meaning it releases hormones. Similar to the thymus, it's located at the base of the brain. And similar to the hypothalamus, you don't need to know where it's located, but just so you can kind of visualize, that's in the brain, that's where the pituitary gland is. And the pituitary gland is sometimes called the master gland because it regulates so many functions. And then finally, the thyroid is another endocrine gland that releases hormones, which are chemical signals which travel through the blood to control other tissues within the body. And the thyroid produces thyroid hormone, which helps to regulate the body's metabolism. Key takeaway for this question, though, going back to it, which body system regulates and maintains body temperature? That is the hypothalamus. Next question: a medical assistant is about to remove a patient's sutures without practicing proper hand hygiene. Which of the following torts is the assistant potentially committing in this situation? So first, what is this word? A tort refers to a wrongful act which leads to injury or harm for which a civil lawsuit can be brought. So that means that something has caused harm to a patient, and this can result in the patient suing the provider, the medical assistant, the medical clinic, etc. And so there are different types of torts, and this question is asking us about a medical assistant who hasn't washed their hands properly. Which tort has been committed? And the answer to that question is B, negligence. Why? So negligence is when someone fails to exercise the level of care that a reasonable person would have provided in a similar situation. So a medical assistant should have reasonably washed their hands before doing something that could lead to a patient's infection. And by not doing that, we've caused potential harm to that patient that could have been avoided. This is referred to as negligence, and it's a very serious tort that can occur within a medical clinic and definitely something that we want to be aware of. Look at the incorrect answer choices: defamation refers to harming a person's reputation by making false statements about them. So for example, that could be me stating that a patient isn't taking proper care of their children when that isn't true. Fraud occurs when false information is presented as a fact with the intention to deceive others. So for example, it could be fraudulent if I stated that a patient only paid $50 when in fact they paid $100. And then finally, battery is a tort of intentional offensive touching of another person without their consent. So a battery could be anything from me putting an unwanted hand on a patient's shoulder to a provider intentionally groping a patient in a sexual nature. Next question: a medical assistant is recording a patient's weight for a routine check-up. If the patient's weight is 70 kilograms, which of the following is the correct conversion to pounds? Now, this design does come up on the medical assistant certification test, having to do this mathematical question and perform this conversion. And the answer to this question is 154 pounds. Why? So first, we need to know the multiplication factor going from kilograms to pounds is 2.2. You need to memorize that. So we have 70 kilograms, we're going to multiply by 2.2 to get from kilograms to pounds. So how are we going to do this calculation? Well, 70 times 2.2 can be broken up into 70 times 2 and 70 times 0.2, and then we just need to add those two values. So 70 by 2 is equal to 140. Another way of doing this is 7 times 2 is 14, so therefore 70 times 2 would be 140. And then we need to multiply 70 by 0.2, right? Because we need to do this component of it as well. And to make this simpler, we can think of 0.2 being the same as 20 percent of 70. And since 10 percent of 70 is going to be 7, then 20 percent would be 14. And then finally, we're just going to add those two numbers together. 70 times 2 was 140, 70 times 0.2 was 14. So 140 plus 14 is equal to 154 pounds. And that's one simple way of doing this math in your head. So our 70 kilogram patient, we're going to multiply that by 2.2 to get 154 pounds as their weight in pounds.