For every medical diagnosis, disease, injury, symptom, complaint and procedure, healthcare professionals use a specific code in order to maintain consistent outcomes, data assessment and billing. These codes, formerly called the ICD-9, are a set of characters and numbers that have experienced a series of revisions since they were first put into place. As of October 1, 2015, the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, Revision 10) is in effect.
With this revision, comes a challenging and costly transition to the tune of $1.64 billion, which includes staff training, losses in productivity and system changes. Beyond obvious financial costs of this major change (which vary depending on the operation), making the switch to ICD-10 puts a burden on workflow and time. The following infographic details the financial cost of ICD-10 implementation as well as common concerns of healthcare professionals and smart steps hospitals can take in order to ease their staff into the transition.
