Pharmacy News EU

2010 FEB 1 – (NewsRx.com) PHNS Inc. announced that it has been engaged by NorthBay Healthcare (NorthBay), Fairfield, California, to begin the process of assessing its readiness for its migration from ICD-9 to ICD-10. PHNS was awarded this Phase 1 of a multi-phase project for NorthBay (see also PHNS Inc.).
PHNS’ ICD-10 review will include a technology readiness assessment of all of NorthBay’s technology vendors, including the level of risk associated with each system or vendor and a gap analysis describing tasks and dependencies to move NorthBay from the current ICD-9 state (and associated X12 4010 transaction sets) to ICD-10 (and its associated X12 5010 transaction sets).
NorthBay’s vision includes the development of new advanced EMR functionality and compliance with all regulatory guidelines and timeframes related to the ICD-10 implementation and functionality. In a separate but related project, NorthBay is currently partnering with PHNS to provide an ARRA stimulus funds readiness assessment as a step in continuing to realize that vision.
"PHNS commends NorthBay for recognizing the critical importance of early planning to prepare for the mandated transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 code sets, and we are very pleased to have been selected by NorthBay to assist in such preparation," said Dan Allison, CEO of PHNS. "ICD-10 is a massive undertaking on the scale of Y2K, and pre-planning now will help avoid a costly future crisis implementation," added Allison.
"NorthBay selected PHNS to conduct a readiness assessment for our migration to ICD-10 based on the depth and breadth of PHNS’ expertise in hospital information technology, health information management, medical coding and revenue cycle, which will be essential to help ensure that this major transition is completed on time and on budget," said Rose Kennedy, Senior Director of Revenue Cycle Management at NorthBay Healthcare. About NorthBay: NorthBay Healthcare is a community-based, non-profit health care system serving Solano County, California since 1960. Its hospitals, NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield and NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, are known for providing the community with quality clinical inpatient and outpatient services. In 2009, the NorthBay Heart & Vascular Center opened within NorthBay Medical Center, bringing advanced cardiac care to Solano County for the first time. The 131-bed NorthBay Medical Center is also a center of excellence for cancer, maternal and child services. NorthBay Medical Center also has a Newborn Intensive Care Unit that provides the most sophisticated services for premature or ill newborns within 50 miles. Both hospitals offer 24-hour emergency care, intensive care, and sophisticated surgical and diagnostic services. NorthBay owns and operates a network of physician ambulatory care centers to include three Centers for Primary Care with offices in Fairfield, Vacaville and Green Valley, and a joint venture ambulatory surgery center. About PHNS: PHNS provides IT services for hospitals, other healthcare providers and businesses. PHNS’ IT services include application hosting, co-location and managed services; electronic off-site data back-up and data vaulting; business continuity solutions; disaster recovery services; and systems integration services. PHNS also provides knowledge management solutions to include clinical informatics/analytic services, comprehensive business process solutions for hospitals including admitting, HIM (including medical record management and storage, transcription, coding, release of information and electronic medical record services) and revenue cycle services. PHNS creates business healthy hospitals by improving operations, enhancing technology and increasing cash on hand, which allows hospitals to focus on their core competencypatient care. PHNS has approximately 1,800 customers, including approximately 400 hospital IT and business process customers and approximately 1,270 IT customers. PHNS is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. See www.phns.com for additional information about PHNS.
(c) 2010 Health & Medicine Week via NewsRx.com