Latest ICD-10 analysis indicates no pick up in prep
Yet another survey indicates that healthcare providers are making slow if any progress toward ICD-10 implementation.
Published in the June edition of the Journal of AHIMA, the analysis focused on a survey of more than 300 health information management professionals representing 293 healthcare facilities. As of last fall, more than half of the respondents were still in the beginning phases of ICD-10 implementation and 25 percent of respondents had yet to form an ICD-10 steering committee.
The AHIMA survey's authors said that time, money and human resources investments in four areas must be balanced and integrated to increase a facility's odds of a successful deployment: computer-assisted coding, clinical documentation improvement, education and audits.
This analysis comes after a survey published by healthcare revenue IT vendor Health Revenue Assurance Holdings in April found that 20 percent of responding small- and mid-sized hospitals had yet to start any education or training for the ICD-10 shift. Healthcare consultants Aloft Group and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) also have determined that the healthcare industry, by-and-large, is dragging its feet when it comes to the ICD-10 transition. WEDI last month launched an initiative to pool the resources of state collaborative organizations to help reduce the time and cost required for ICD-10 implementation.
Still, the analysis authors said, "There is no silver bullet for ICD-10 transition success."
Read the entire Journal of AHIMA analysis.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.