ISA audio 121023

This digital project focuses on the impact of interoperability standards on medical procedures. Interoperability standards are important because they allow for flexibility and adaptability in the healthcare industry. The main standard discussed is ICD-10-PCS, which is a billing code used in inpatient settings. Other code sets mentioned include SNOMED CT, CPT, HCPCS, and LOINC. These standards improve data quality, ensure consistency, and promote interoperability between healthcare systems. Constraints on the use of these standards include local variations, data quality, patient privacy, and regulatory compliance. Overall, interoperability standards play a crucial role in ensuring accurate and efficient communication in the healthcare industry. This digital project is about the impact of interoperability standards on medical procedures. We're going to be assessing the grid characteristics, vocabulary code set, and terminology constraints. So why are interoperability standards important? I worked in a hospital system that used EPIC EMR, electronic medical record. As the medical imaging manager, one of my duties was to work with EPIC's radiology module, Radiant. Early in the adoption stage of EPIC and Radiant, the decision was made to modify Radiant to the needs of the operation. Ten years on, though, this created a problem because the Radiant upgrade was incompatible with the production version. So instead of just upgrading Radiant to its latest version, the company had to decide to keep going down the quote, unquote, homegrown path or purchase a whole new Radiant product, which is very expensive. Having standards that are revised and implemented on a regular basis retained flexibility while keeping up with the changes that inevitably occur in the healthcare industry. The ISA standards as they apply to medical procedures. The vocabulary sets for this standard are SNOMED CT, CPT, HCPCS, ICD-10-PCS, and LOINC. Today we're going to focus on the ICD-10-PCS as it is not federally required and has less of an adoption level than some of the other code sets. ICD-10-PCS has completed the process of standards maturity and is no longer soliciting feedback. The procedures are fully implemented and are in production from a usability perspective. ICD-10-PCS is free and does not require a test tool. The limitations, dependencies, preconditions, and applicable value and starter sets. ICD-10-PCS is a billing code used in inpatient settings. LOINC is used for the procedure note, which is dictated by the proceduralist. It also is used for post-procedure diagnosis, relevant intra-procedure events, and a description of how the patient tolerated the exam. If tissue samples are taken, a pathology report narrative contains the pathologist's interpretation of the tissue samples. Medical imaging performs procedures that intervene. That's interventional radiology, or IR. And post-procedure notes are dictated using macros that employ LOINC. Other limitations, dependencies, and preconditions include the 2015 edition ICD-10-PCS certification rules are an optional code set for procedures. SNOMED CT U.S. edition procedure codes can be used to describe treatment in any clinical setting and are not tied to billing. The SNOMED CT can be cross-mapped to corresponding ICD-10-PCS and CPT slash HCPCS codes. That's a direct quote out of HealthIT.gov, 2023. Constraints on the vocabulary code sets and terminology when assessing the medical procedures, some of those constraints are the diversity of procedures, local variations and practices, data quality and consistency, integration with the EHR, patient privacy and security, adoption of the standards, regulatory compliance, and new procedures and methods can create constraints. The final assessment of the interoperability standards on medical procedures is that these standards create consistency for terms and codes in describing medical procedures. This standardization creates interoperability between healthcare systems, application and disparate vendor products. The consistency improves data quality and reduces the chance of misinterpretation of terms. Coordination with the regulatory standards keeps the healthcare organization in line with government rules and regulations. The standards facilitate data mining and research and the interoperability promotes data sharing through a health information exchange, HIE, if one exists.