On Tuesday, May 23, 2017, there will be updates to venous blood gas and venous oxygen saturation codes. The changes result in separate codes for specimens collected from central veins (e.g., central venous catheter, PICC line, or pulmonary artery catheter) or peripheral veins.  This affects blood gas analyzer testing in the Critical Care Laboratory, Special Care Nursery Laboratory, and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) laboratory.

These changes allow for distinction of specimen source, which has both clinical importance and is also a performance metric for SEP-1 Core Measure.  A summary of the changes is below:

Current Code	New Codes
VENOUS OXYGEN SATURATION (CRITICAL CARE LABORATORY) [LAB881]	VENOUS (CENTRAL) OXYGEN SATURATION (CRITICAL CARE LABORATORY) [LAB8593] VENOUS (PERIPHERAL) OXYGEN SATURATION (CRITICAL CARE LABORATORY) [LAB8592]
VENOUS BLOOD GAS (CRITICAL CARE LABORATORY) [LAB79]	VENOUS (CENTRAL) BLOOD GAS (CRITICAL CARE LABORATORY) [LAB8591] VENOUS (PERIPHERAL) BLOOD GAS (CRITICAL CARE LABORATORY) [LAB8590]
VENOUS OXYGEN SATURATION - PICU [LAB8221]	VENOUS (CENTRAL) OXYGEN SATURATION (PICU) [LAB8597] VENOUS (PERIPHERAL) OXYGEN SATURATION (PICU) [LAB8596]
VENOUS BLOOD GASES - PICU [LAB8211]	VENOUS (CENTRAL) BLOOD GASES (PICU) [LAB8594] VENOUS (PERIPHERAL) BLOOD GASES (PICU) [LAB8595]

Questions should be directed to Matthew Krasowski, MD, PhD, medical director of the Clinical Chemistry Laboratory (384-9380, matthew-krasowski@uiowa.edu).