Lessons learned from an ICD-10-CM clinical documentation pilot study.

On October 1, 2013, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) will be mandated for use in the United States in place of the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). This new classification system will used throughout the nation's healthcare system for recording diagnoses or the reasons for treatment or care. A pilot study was conducted to determine whether current levels of inpatient clinical documentation provide the detail necessary to fully utilize the ICD-10-CM classification system for heart disease, pneumonia, and diabetes cases. The design of this pilot study was cross-sectional. Four hundred ninety-one de-identified records from two sources were coded using ICD-10-CM guidelines and codebooks. The findings of this study indicate that healthcare organizations need to assess clinical documentation and identify gaps. In addition, coder proficiency should be assessed prior to ICD-10-CM implementation to determine the need for further education and training in the biomedical sciences, along with training in the new classification system.