Medical Coding

Answer: A - Suspecting that the patient had been drinking and driving, the physician ordered a qualitative alcohol pathology test. After determining that the patient did indeed have alcohol in their system, the physician then ordered a quantitative pathology test to check the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. A qualitative pathology test checks only for the presence of a specific substance, in this case alcohol. After the qualitative results come in positive, a quantitative test checks for the actual amount of the substance in the blood stream (the actual quantity of the substance).