By now you've probably heard the switch to ICD-10 is approaching on October 1, 2014.

It's a little daunting to think about another change of this magnitude (on top of what we've already experienced). The good news is that a lot of the work of adopting ICD-10 has already been done with the Epic rollout. Epic has built in ICD-9 to ICD-10 translation, and has other tools to make it easier to pick the correct ICD-10 diagnosis.

PeaceHealth providers on Epic are already using the tools they will need to use for ICD-10.  Most providers have already seen cases where the Epic diagnosis calculator pops up to prompt for the increased specificity that is required for ICD-10.   Ex.  When a provider enters the diagnosis for a fracture, a calculator pops up to prompt for left vs. right, initial vs. subsequent encounter, etc.

Beginning in April, the most noticeable difference providers will encounter is that the Epic ICD-10 diagnosis calculator will fire more frequently because some commonly occurring diagnoses (e.g. asthma) now need to be replaced with more specific terms (asthma-uncomplicated-mild persistent) in order to submit for billing.

ICD-10 will have the highest impact on cardiovascular and orthopedic diagnosis codes, but it affects other specialties as well.   Education materials have been prepared to help providers and coders focus on the key changes for their specialties.

In April, onsite presentations will be led by an outside physician ICD-10 expert at PeaceHealth's larger medical centers with possible live streaming to the smaller facilities. A set of 53 subspecialty-specific modules and reference guides will also be available online in March.

Look for more details on the PeaceHealth ICD-10 intranet site or Care Transformation blog. If you have questions, I would encourage you to contact Dr. Juanita Doerksen, the physician/provider liaison for ICD-10 at PeaceHealth.