Certified Coding Associate (CCA) Practice Exam

In the context of the conditions listed, the diagnosis that should not be tagged as Present on Admission (POA) is the postoperative infection. This is because an infection that arises after a surgical procedure, such as a laparoscopic appendectomy, is considered to have developed after the patient was admitted for the surgery.

In the POA guidelines, a diagnosis that is present at the time of admission—meaning it existed before the patient was admitted for treatment—would be appropriate to tag as POA. In this situation, the patient's chronic conditions such as COPD and hypertension were likely present prior to admission, as these are ongoing health issues that do not develop acutely due to the surgical procedure. Appendicitis, being the condition that led to the surgery, would also have been present before the operation took place.

On the other hand, postoperative infections identify a complication or an adverse outcome that occurs as a result of surgical intervention, not a preexisting condition. Therefore, tagging this diagnosis as POA does not align with its nature, as it cannot be said to have been present before the surgery was performed.