EHR, Management Systems Served the Transformation to ICD-10

In accordance to a WEDI survey, healthcare stakeholders were capable to smoothly transformation to ICD-10 due to EHR and practice management networks that motivated ICD-10 functionality.

While the majority of healthcare stakeholders have completely transformed to ICD-10, several contributors and vendors are crediting the smooth changeover to their electronic health records and practice management networks.

In accordance to the WEDI  ICD-10 implementation Survey, healthcare stakeholders informed that the transition and execution of the ICD-10 was overall a positive experience, particularly with the assistance of the EHR systems that already had ICD-10 functionality.

 “All contributor respondents had either an EHR or practice management system however a very minor number responded that the product wasn’t delivered in enough time or lacked anticipated functionality,” wrote Jean Narcisi, Chair of WEDI, in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services. “For the most part, having these devices in place simplified the transformation because of the inclusion of ICD-10 codes and mapping recommendations.”

In addition to capable EHR networks, healthcare stakeholders also claimed that initial planning of the budget and staff resource acquisition assisted to the ease the industry into ICD-10 implementation. The survey participants also referred an increase in external and internal communication along with ICD-10 experimenting as positive outcomes of the new system.

The survey demonstrated that most of respondents were ready for the month of October 1, 2015 agreement date. Although, merely 1 participant out of the 66 healthcare stakeholders surveyed highlighted that their facility required outside assistance to completely implement ICD-10 and one other respondent reported that their agency was yet not ready.

Researchers discovered that ICD-10 execution minimally disrupted the normal functions of healthcare agencies despite uncertainties with the new system.

“The majority of vendor respondents demonstrated that there was no significant affect to business operations,” described Narcisi. “The majority of health policies didn’t demonstrate negative operational impacts because of the ICD-10 and some demonstrated that there were positive affects in places like claims validation, post payment reviews and data analysis.”

Most survey participants also claimed that the affect to productivity in general was neutral. The majority of healthcare stakeholders stated that productivity was just slightly decreased with the transition, specifically with coding and clinical documentation.

Despite overall neutral reactions about the  ICD-10 implementation, more healthcare contributors didn’t respond with positive effects of the latest system. Most reported that productivity was really diminished for the process of authorization and pre-certification functions.

Furthermore, survey participants were normally satisfied with the price of implementation. About half of the healthcare stakeholders claimed that the price of ICD-10 agreement was within their agency’s budget. Almost 25% reported that the implementation cost more than expected while the other 25% highlighted that it was less than the budgeted amount.