Extensive Training: The Latest with our ICD-10 Upgrade

[Brandi Boren]

There is a lot going on in the way of hospital upgrades for us as I am sure it is for most hospitals.  We are getting ready to go live with meaningful use stage 2,  getting ready to start the MPF upgrade, and of course ICD-10.  I had touched base earlier on what we had planned for getting ready for ICD-10 so I kind of wanted to do a follow up on what we have done and what our next steps are going forward. 

In April our coders started Anatomy and Pathophysiology training to enhance their skills before full ICD-10 training.  They had until the end of February to complete all modules.  There are 33 courses which are made of modules/test and a competency assessment.  This has been a long process to try to complete all courses and still code.  Our coders started out having two hours overtime every two weeks to work on them and the rest was on personal time.  Then they had two hours overtime per week and the rest was on personal time.  They spent a lot of nights and weekends of their personal time working on these modules.  They are now releaved to be done with this part and ready to move on to the next phase.    

I have asked a couple of our coders to tell me what they thought and experienced with the courses.  “I think in the long run it will help us get prepared for ICD-10, but they are very time consuming.  This whole year and some of last year has been dedicated to try to help us get prepared for ICD-10.  As far as the modules you go in, watch, listen, read each slide, and take notes. We dont have a book in front of us to help us to take the tests.  It’s too much to remember so sometimes you do the best you can the first time and then write down the ones you get wrong so you can go back through and find the answers.  When taking the tests there are 10 questions you have to answer and you have to make a 80 percent to pass so you can miss two and still pass.  I dont really mind doing this it just takes alot of time to do, but it’s part of my job.”  “I have had A&P I and II. This is more indepth than all the other classes I have had, it would have been better to have a book instead of reading all of it on the computer.”

At this time the coders are taking some courses through Elsevier Coding Education.  This is a hospital wide education, but of course the coders have a lot more courses than the average hospital employee.  We only had to take one course and it was kind of an overview of ICD-10 and then an assesment at the end.  You have to make 80 percent to pass.  The coders have 15 courses that have to be done by March 28^th.  They can be on the clock for these, but they have to keep up with how much time they spend on it to justify for the uncoded report.  The next phase is to have someone come train the coders two days a week on ICD-10 for several weeks.  The contract is still being worked on at this time.   

So as you can see we will be pretty busy the rest of the year with building/training for upgrades and training for ICD-10.  A lot of hard work and time being put into making this a successful transition as we move forward. 

Brandi Boren has worked for Jennie Stuart Medical Center in Medical Records for eight years and has five years experience with McKesson including Horizon Patient Folder, Paragon Medical Records, and Webstation for Physicians.