With now under a year to go until ICD-10 implementation becomes standard, clinics and practices throughout the United States are taking significant steps to ensure their chiropractic EHR software is completely up-to-date to accommodate the thousands of new diagnostic codes that will be at their disposal. Making this transition as smoothly as possible was one of the chief topics addressed at the 2014 American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) Convention in San Diego two weeks ago, with many industry experts and spokespeople doling out some of the best ways to prepare for ICD-10 by next October 1.

Here are just a few of the key takeaways from that conference, courtesy of EHR Intelligence:

• Creative, but quick, education is key: No one is going to get a handle on ICD-10 overnight, so it's crucial that these next 12 months are used as much as possible in educating clinic staffers on how to best take advantage of ICD-10 codes. Thorough ICD-10 education is a significant time investment and commitment, but a necessary one, as the better equipped practices are to handle the new coding upgrade, the better they can reap its advantages. Taking creative approaches to this kind of training is encouraged, but it's even more important to start it right away — the earlier you can begin, the better prepared providers will be.
• The importance of clean data: "The data that goes in has got to be accessible," said Angela Kennedy, last year's RHIA President, in reference to ICD-10, "but data integrity is also so important. It's got to be clean. Garbage in, garbage out, right? It's really important that we have clean data that can address issues not only of quality, but also of cost. If we have that, and we put those principles in place, it'll really be a catalyst to help organization make the most of their assets."

Adopting new chiropractic documentation software can help ensure streamlined recordkeeping, cleaner data and ICD-10 compliance.