ICD-10 and Beyond - What Are the Key Drivers for Healthcare BI in mid-2015?

There are some consistent themes arising among our US healthcare customers. A common one is that BI platform managers and administrators in the healthcare industry are becoming more proactive in order to resolve numerous pressing issues.

There are regulatory issues (HIPAA, HITECH) and ICD-10 adoption issues There are issues with BI/EHR integration and with change management. And, of course, there is the ever-present issue of resource constraints.

One of our larger healthcare customers recently said they have managed to complete ICD-10 testing and adoption well before the October 2015 deadline, but I wonder, how is the rest of the industry doing? What is the current state of ICD-10 readiness?

In a 2014 survey on ICD-10 readiness by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA):

65% of respondents indicated that they could begin end-to-end testing prior to the fourth quarter of 2015, when compliance is set to begin. Of these, a majority (63%) will be ready to conduct testing in 2014, while the rest will wait until 2015.  Ten percent of all respondents currently have no plans to conduct end-to-end testing, and 17 percent don’t know when their organization will be ready for testing.

In general, the larger the healthcare organization, the more likely it is to be prepared, and to have end-to-end testing either already completed or in their plans prior to the adoption deadline. And the smaller the healthcare organization, the more likely it is to have resource constraints and knowledge limitations:

Organizations with no plans to conduct end-to-end testing often cited a lack of knowledge as the reason to forego testing (36%). Nearly half (45%) of these organizations are clinics/physician practices, possibly indicating a knowledge gap around ICD-10 implementation and testing for those organizations with fewer resources. By contrast, only two of the acute care hospitals responding to the survey had no plans for end-to-end testing.

The pyramids of Egypt are testament to what can be accomplished with a nearly unlimited supply of cheap or free labor, and larger healthcare organizations have been able to apply the necessary resources and the necessary knowledge to meet the deadline, but what about the rest of us? How can smaller healthcare organizations make the transition to ICD-10 comfortably?

When you don't have the resources, working smarter is the only practical alternative, and working smarter requires both a deeper knowledge of your deployment than is commonly available, as well as the ability to streamline and automate many of your BI workflows.

Lamont Parraway of LifeBridge Health joins us this afternoon (July 23, 2015, at 2 pm ET) for a webinar to discuss some of the biggest challenges he faces in managing the LifeBridge Health SAP BusinessObjects deployment. Attend the webinar to find out how he uses automation and deep system introspection to manage change, meet reporting needs, and reduce the load on IT resources.

View the recorded webinar...

(Note: if you register but are unable to attend, we will send you a link to a recording of the webinar, which you can then enjoy and share at your leisure.)