Beach as the place of occurrence of the external cause

This code identifies a beach environment as the specific location where an injury or other adverse health event occurred. It indicates that the patient's external cause of morbidity originated while they were situated on a sandy or pebbly shoreline adjacent to a body of water.

Assign this code when documentation clearly states that the incident, such as a fall, marine animal encounter, or heat-related illness, took place on a beach. This is applicable for both recreational and occupational exposures occurring in this specific outdoor setting.

• Always use this code as a secondary code, following the primary external cause code (e.g., W06 for fall).
• Ensure the medical record explicitly mentions "beach" or a similar term (e.g., "seashore," "oceanfront") as the site of the event.
• Do not use for incidents occurring in the water adjacent to the beach; a different place of occurrence code would be more appropriate for aquatic environments.