The New ICD-10 Deadline

The ICD-10 training will probably be offered to all physicians because if CPOE and progress notes enter the MCHS already properly coded, then the hospital itself has to do less coding, and can begin to analyze the data in richer ways than before, he adds.

"We're hoping to get to concurrent coding with ICD-10. This will help us do better predictive modeling on geometric length of stay," Barnes says.

Currently, MCHS uses SNOMED coding. Barnes says his team is still evaluating whether some sort of transition will take place, or if it will come down to rip-and-replace with ICD-10. The solution will come from a mix of vendor input and outside consulting, he says. The one-year delay "gives us a little more time to evaluate that."

At Seattle Children's, the one-year delay did not change the "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" attitude toward ICD-10, says Drexel DeFord, senior vice president and CIO of Seattle Children's.

"We were going to continue with all the work we were doing until we got a real date," DeFord says. "We hadn't really let up on anything. Now that the date's been released, I think a one-year delay certainly feels appropriate. I think it releases a little bit of pressure on the folks who had gotten a late start or who had not quite yet started on ICD-10."

The one-year delay lets Seattle Children's better integrate its ICD-10 projects into the multitude of other projects under way throughout the organization, including an expansion from 254 licensed beds to 329 licensed beds by April 2013, DeFord adds.

Seattle Children's transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 coding began in mid- to late-2010 with the hiring of a program manager. "There was a lot of work really scoping what we needed to do," DeFord says.

IT projects included making sure all software was updated to be ICD-10 capable. In many cases, software vendors weren't ready yet, and even now, Seattle Children's hasn't been able to complete some of those transitions. But the October 1, 2014, date will still work, DeFord says.