The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality ((AHRQ) announces the release of the Procedure Classes, updated for Fiscal Year 2012 for use with databases available from the Agency's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) as well as other administrative health care databases.

The Procedure Classes are created to facilitate health services research on hospital procedures using administrative data. This classification system allows the researcher to readily determine if (a) a procedure is diagnostic or therapeutic, and (b) a procedure is minor or major in terms of invasiveness and/or resource use.

Researchers can use the Procedure Classes as an easy way to categorize procedure codes into one of four broad categories: Minor Diagnostic, Minor Therapeutic, Major Diagnostic, and Major Therapeutic.

Minor Diagnostic Procedures are identified as non-operating room procedures that are diagnostic (e.g., 87.03 CT scan of head).

Minor Therapeutic Procedures are classified as non-operating room procedures that are therapeutic (e.g., 02.41 Irrigate ventricular shunt).

Major Diagnostic Procedures are all procedures considered valid operating room procedures by the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) grouper and that are performed for diagnostic reasons (e.g., 01.14 Open brain biopsy).

Major Therapeutic Procedures are defined as all procedures considered valid operating room procedures by the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) grouper and that are performed for therapeutic reasons (e.g., 39.24 Aorta-renal bypass).

The Procedure Classes are updated each year. The current version is based on ICD-9-CM procedure codes that are valid for January 1, 1980 through September 30, 2012, and is available for download from the HCUP-US Website's Tools & Software page..