Salem Hospital is welcoming worldwide medical coding and documentation improvement expert, Dr. James Kennedy, to speak about upcoming changes to the medical coding system currently known as ICD-9 (International Statistical Classifications of Diseases).

The coding system will be migrating to a new system called ICD-10 in October 2014, and Kennedy will be making a series of presentations to educate physicians as well as hospital and medical staff groups about how the new coding changes will affect their practices. His presentations will take place in various locations on both the Salem Hospital campus and the West Valley Hospital campus between Tuesday, Feb. 19 and Thursday, Feb. 28.

ICD codes are alphanumeric designations given to every diagnosis, description of symptoms and cause of death attributed to humans. Due to the advancement of medical care and diagnosis since the ICD-9 coding system was established, it is necessary to upgrade the system to match these advancements. The new system will include more than 68,000 diagnosis codes compared to ICD-9 which includes about 13,000.  All health care providers will be required to be on this new ICD-10 platform as of November 2014. Salem Health will go live with the new system on October 1, 2014.

“We’re very fortunate to have Dr. Kennedy come to our community to help educate our physicians and staff about the ICD-10 coding changes,” said Claire Norton, MD, physician champion on the ICD-10 project implementation team. “His knowledge and expertise will be a great benefit to us as we make this critically important transition.”

Kennedy is managing director of FTI Consulting, a health care finance/revenue stream optimization business based in Brentwood, Tenn. His expertise includes physician hospital leadership, health care systems improvement, health care documentation, coding compliance and government relations.

Kennedy will be speaking on Wednesday, Feb. 20 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Wedel Auditorium of Building B on the Salem Hospital campus. His presentation at West Valley Hospital will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 20 in the West Valley Conference Room. Numerous other sub-specialty meetings will be held at various times and locations as well.

All physicians are encouraged to attend at least one of the presentations by Kennedy to learn about the new ICD-10 system and how changes will affect documentation, reimbursements and more. The events are free and some qualify for continuing medical education (CME) credit. For more information on Kennedy’s visit and a complete list of meeting times, dates and locations, physicians can visit salemhealth.org/icd-10.

Salem Health is comprised of Salem Hospital, West Valley Hospital, Willamette Health Partners and other affiliated health care organizations offering exceptional care to people in and around Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley. Visit us at salemhealth.org and facebook.com/salemhealth; follow us on Twitter: @salemhealth; and view us at youtube.com/salemhealth.