Learn ICD-10 Lessons from Australia
(Editor's note: This guest blog was written by Anita Archer, who leads Hayes Management Consulting's Regulatory and Compliance Services division.)
Regarding ICD-10, Australia has already "been there, done that." In Hayes' recent webinar, our guest speaker, health information manager Debbie Abbott, relayed some lessons learned from her experience rolling out ICD-10 to more than 200 facilities in Queensland, AU.
Debbie's team consisted of three major working parties: impact assessment, education and information technology. Key issues included: IT systems, vendor readiness, implementation plan/coordinators, education, DRG changes, output rates, identification of key stakeholders, and support.
Tips to overcome issues included:
- Predicting impact of output rates (program), ongoing education 18 months prior to implementation (all stakeholders)
- Focusing on processes
- Involving all stakeholders
- Putting the right people in the right roles (in the working parties)
- Providing education tailored to end users - not everyone needs to know everything. They also gave end users various ways to learn, including online, in person, etc.
And get this: Everyone LOVES ICD-10!
We were happy to hear that everyone Debbie works with loves ICD-10! She cited better classification, fewer "dump codes" (e.g., non-defined DX codes ending in 9 and 0) and better processes. They took the opportunity to enhance their workflows and processes during the transition.
It has been 12 years now that Australia has been using ICD-10, and Debbie reported that the impact was minimal.
Overall, Debbie said that their focus on education, early preparation and good work groups were the keys to their success. Now they are preparing for ICD-11 in 2015!