What does CHF NOS mean?

Tink RN · Oct 18, 2003

New onset maybe? Thats the only thing I can figure ... or maybe someone misinterpreted the Docs handwriting. (That would be a first, huh?) :roll

memphispanda, RN · Oct 18, 2003

The NOS is probably Not Otherwise Specified. You see it more often with psych diagnoses. Oh duh--you knew that.

Perhaps the CHF was actually supposed to be congenital heart?

PsychNurseDee · Oct 19, 2003

Perhaps if there was no previously identified etiology or risk factors it is classified as NOS. Or, as in psych, it doesn't fit one of the already common categories of heart disease ASHD, etc. Not sure. Ask your doc and let us know what you find out.

dosamigos76, RN · Oct 19, 2003

Thanks for the info, you all stated pretty much what I thought. We are just starting clinicals and a friend had this charted on her primary pt's chart. Thanks again.

Cheryl

LydiaGreen · Oct 24, 2003

Whenever you see NOS on the end of diagnosis... it means that the client doesn't necessarily have all of the normal pathophysiology seen with the usual cases but that this is in fact the illness that they have. By pathophysiology I mean signs, symptoms, etiology, progression, etc...

One example is a client who passed from a missed meningitis diagnosis... wasn't the doc's fault... the client had none of the usual signs & symptoms at all! It was completely the opposite of what would be expected. It took an autopsy to figure it out.

My first pregnancy was ectopic... the diagnosis was missed for 36 days (during which I hemorrhaged the whole time) because I did not have any of the usual symptoms... onset was five days after ovulation not two, three, or four months into pregnancy, I did not have the severe pain normally reported, I had none of the risk factors for it, etc. Each doc thought I had an incomplete miscarriage but the D&C had zero results... nothing there to remove. An OB/Gyn finally did exploratory surgery and discovered the ectopic pregnancy. At my post-op follow-op examination, the OB apologized profusely but it was missed because I did not match even one of the usual signs & symptoms. Then, he told me that there was a tiny piece of tissue keeping me from bleeding out, that if it had let go, I would have bled to death before I reached the phone. I try to remember that not everyone presents with the textbook version of an illness and never to jump to conclusions.