5 ways to help your medical staff survive ICD-10
If hospitals and health systems do not get buy-in from their physicians, the ICD-10 transition may be hazardous to the health of the organization. Physicians need to accept the changes required to make ICD-10 implementation work.
If physicians don't document patient encounters properly, medical coding productivity and accuracy will suffer. That leads to financial problems, as medical claim rejections and denials increase.
Hospital administrators need to engage physicians in a way that ensures they learn what they need to know and apply the knowledge after Oct. 1. The following five tactics will help.
Find value in ICD-10 coding
Blaming the federal bureaucracy and health insurance industry is not going to motivate physicians to accept ICD-10. They need to see the value in improving clinical documentation and using ICD-10 codes.
Simply telling physicians that ICD-10 codes will provide more data that can improve population health won't be enough. Organizations need to have a plan that uses clinical data and shares it with physicians. They need to know their work makes a difference and see the results.
Train physicians to be teachers
Physicians aren't going to want to hear from medical coders or documentation specialists. They will be more receptive to physicians who speak their language, work in the same specialty and won't tell them they're doing their jobs wrong.
Physicians need to learn about the importance of ICD-10 from someone who respects their knowledge and time. Physician trainers will be able to help customize training for each specialty.
Customize sessions to fit learning styles
The first impulse of an ICD-10 educator may be to gather physicians in a room and fire up a projector. Perhaps this works for some physicians. But maybe there are more physicians who will learn better at their own pace and don't need a classroom session.
Make videos and workbooks available that let physicians learn at their pace, on their schedules. But be sure to follow and reinforce the sessions, and be available to answer questions. Making a variety of training options available to physicians will help them accept change.
Minimize effort
No one has enough time in a day. Physicians feel the time pressure even more. To combat this problem, break ICD-10 training into small sessions that are easier to fit into busy schedules. Short sessions will feel less daunting and boring.
Try to minimize the amount of memorization required. The major knock on the ICD-10 code set is the sheer number of codes. Mitigate that concern by requiring as little memorization as possible.
And if you're using physician trainers, education sessions can focus on specialties. Physicians won't have to learn how to document diagnoses that they're unlikely to encounter.
Inoculate against disruptions
Physicians need to understand that the hospital is trying to make the ICD-10 transition as easy as possible. If they can appreciate that accommodations are being made for their schedules and specialty, they will be more willing to learn.
As a result, they will be more likely to believe that their efforts will lead to fewer medical coder queries. And that's the ultimate goal, as queries will kill productivity for medical coders and physicians. It's time wasted for everyone.
Remember, train your physicians to provide the detail that supports ICD-10 coding in a way that respects their time and expertise. If you do it right, your docs will respect and support the ICD-10 transition.
