Xerox's coding hand sought at Miami hospital

NORWALK, USA: Miami Children's Hospital (MCH) is turning to Xerox's expertise to ease Florida's largest pediatric facility's adoption of the latest coding system for medical diagnoses and insurance billing.

Xerox's ICD-10 Complete will ensure MCH staff, business processes and information systems comply with the federal mandate to switch from ICD-9 to the 10th version of the international classification of diseases on Oct. 1, 2015. Among its services for MCH, a 289-bed hospital renowned for excellence in pediatric care, Xerox will train caregivers to document the specific patient-care information required to report diagnoses and procedures through ICD-10's vastly expanded library of codes.

"We'll be ready when ICD-10 goes live," said Ed Martinez, chief information officer at MCH. "Xerox's unique, comprehensive approach will not only help us achieve compliance but truly adopt the new classification protocol to better measure and enhance our performance and quality of care."

With ICD-10 Complete, healthcare providers can address all facets of conversion under a single point of management to better track activities and reduce the probability of errors, the announcement explained.

"Recent legislation extending the October 2014 deadline for ICD-10 compliance by one year should not be a pause button for making progress toward one of the most complex, time-intensive initiatives to improve the accuracy of data for better health outcomes," said Charles Fred, group president of Healthcare Provider Solutions at Xerox.

"With more than 40 years of experience in health IT implementation, adoption and sustainability, Xerox helps simplify the conversion process for organizations like Miami Children's so they can focus on what matters most: caring for patients," Fred said.

Xerox added it supports more than 1,900 hospitals and provides technology solutions and business process outsourcing services to a range of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceuticals, government, communications, financial services, travel, retail and education.