I’ve been having a number of conversations with people about the coming switch over to ICD-10. Invariably those conversations lead to a discussion around how EHR vendors have implemented ICD-10. I can pretty much promise you that every EHR vendor still in business has some way to support ICD-10. However, just because they can support entry of an ICD-10 code doesn’t mean they’re providing the EHR user a good tool to discover the correct ICD-10 code.
This discussion was highlighted really well in these two tweets:
@HealthITAdvice I've been involved w/ ICD-10 for a while now & I don't see a reasonable ICD-10 coding tool. Text search NOTgood #kareochat
— Steve Sisko (@ShimCode) September 17, 2015
And Joe’s response:
Agree Steve! As others have said, EMR should facilitate good documentation workflow & then spit out #ICD10 #KareoChat http://t.co/iaA9dUX1S9
— Joe Lavelle (@Resultant) September 17, 2015
I’ve only seen one EHR vendor who had an amazing ICD-10 coding tool. It basically did all the coding for you as part of the documentation. I’ll be interested to see how well that tool plays out in a real life environment, but their approach is unique and beautiful. I’ve seen some others that do a decent job. I’ve seen others that still apply the standard search box methodology that’s been used for ICD-9. Good luck to those people.
However, this tweet from Erin Head made me cringe even more:
#KareoChat T4: EMRs can make the transition to #ICD10 easier with tools, edits, dropdowns. Docs without an EMR are in major trouble.
— Erin Head (@ErinHead_HIM) September 17, 2015
I’ll be interested to see how doctors still on paper react to the change to ICD-10. It’s coming! Are you ready? Is your EHR ready or do they just say they’re ready? We’ll know soon.
ICD-10 ready means not only all the bells and whistles of coding but also a side by side ICD9 to ICD-10 Comparison to ensure proper coding.
Since that tweetchat, I’ve put up a blog post on what I think a good ICD-10 Coding tool should be able to do. Here it is: http://www.shimcode.com/2015/09/what-would-good-icd-10-coding-tool-be.html
I’d love to be able to find at least one ICD-10 coding tool that could meet most of the requirements I’ve listed.