Analyzing the ICD-10-CM Transition and Post-implementation Stages: A Public Health Institution Case Study

On October 1, 2015, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) was incorporated into the US public health system. Because of significant opposition and reservations expressed by stakeholders, while the proposed rule for ICD-10-CM adoption was issued in 2009, the transition did not occur until October 2015. The purpose of this study was to identify conversion initiatives used by a public health institution during the initial and subsequent stages of ICD-10-CM implementation, to help similar institutions address future unfunded healthcare data infrastructure mandates. The data collection for this study occurred from 2015 to 2018, encompassing 20 semistructured interviews with 13 department heads, managers, physicians, and coders. Research findings from this study identified several trends, disruptions, challenges, and lessons learned that might support the industry with strategies to foster success for the transition to future coding revisions (i.e., ICD-11).