Almost every day there’s a new article on the reasons for and against the ICD-10 delay, and predictions for when the CMS will make its final decision. So, how do you keep your staff focused on the end goal?

A realistic communication and education plan for ICD-10 is critical to ensuring your organization’s most important asset—its people—is totally engaged and active in supporting the transition to ICD-10.

Here are three steps to keep staff engaged in your ICD-10 plan:

1. Keep talking about the ICD-10 implementation project, and sharing and including others in the work that’s being done. Don’t overlook any coworkers even though their role seems insignificant.

2. Ensure that individual roles and related responsibilities are reviewed to determine how they will affect the transition work that needs to be done.

3. Recognize and give voice to challenges and concerns that arise during implementation; once an issue is acknowledged and understood, you and your coworkers can identify a solution.

How well does your organization focus on training and education? Work towards a “this is very important to our success” attitude.

One of the biggest challenges for an organization may be ensuring everyone receives adequate training on ICD-10. As you know very well, training does take time. Some other valid concerns are:

• How are we going to complete our daily work when people are attending training?
• What about the staff members who have to cover for their coworkers who are training?
• Are you overwhelmed when you’re working short-staffed?

With that said, we’re all being asked to do more with less, and keeping a “can do” attitude is hard to maintain all the time.

Work toward having a “this is very important to our success” attitude rather than “this isn’t my problem” approach as it relates to ICD-10. Also, try and focus on the incremental implementation steps, like training, that will move your practice or organization from here to there.

You can play a major role in minimizing negative outcomes with ICD-10 and instead focus on the steps you can take within your organization to make this transition as smooth as possible.