Even if you don't need a hero, an ICD-10 champion would be nice. Someone who can organize what needs to be done and motivate the staff to do what's needed.

If you find yourself in that role, you can try these five steps to becoming an ICD-10 champion: 

1. Be collaborative.

2. Be proactive.

3. Be organized.

4. Be realistic.

5. Be resourceful.

These are pretty important traits. But can we be more specific?

Yes.

Hone your project management skills

It's going to take more than training medical coders on the new codes and training physicians on clinical documentation improvement. Someone needs to:

• Schedule meetings

• Create teams

• Recruit champions

• Plan education and training sessions

• Create impact assessments

• Communicate with vendors and consultants

• Perhaps hire said consultants

This is going to require strong project management skills.

Check these resources

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has an extensive list of resources that explain how to prepare for ICD-10 implementation. 

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has a free ICD-10 Training Tool.  Be careful, it's the base ICD-10 code set not the ICD-10-CM/PCS versions that U.S. healthcare organizations will be using.

• The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) ICD-10 Playbook has a great deal of content to help plan the ICD-10 transition.

• Local professional societies should be planning educational and training programs.

• Talk to your healthcare vendors about your software, equipment and systems. Also, they're interacting with a lot of healthcare providers. They could help you avoid mistakes someone already made.

• Reach out to healthcare payers to find out how they can help and set up ICD-10 testing.

Follow the code

Find out where diagnose codes originate in your practice. Plug in an ICD-10 code and see what happens. When processes break down or halt, that's what you need to upgrade or replace.

Also, start with a patient. See if your medical records have enough information to create ICD-10 codes. This may be your biggest change.

Share your knowledge

You can't be the only person who knows about ICD-10 codes. Develop an ICD-10 training plan for the medical practice:

• Assess what there is to learn

• Identify which staff members will need what training

• Pick best training options

• Schedule training

• Budget resources

Prepare a budget

You're going to need to get a handle on how much the ICD-10 transition will cost. It will focus on four areas:

• Coding

• Revenue cycle

• Project management

• IT

Note there will be direct and indirect costs such as lost productivity due to an increase in training sessions.

ICD-10 champions can't do the whole ICD-10 conversion, but they can be a big part of a successful implementation project.

Related:

How to preserve cash flow after ICD-10 deadline