RIYADH, 19 September 2006 — The Kingdom and Australia signed a deal between the two countries for the highly respected ICD10-AM health classification system, which would reportedly provide employment for more than 2,000 Saudi youths. It would allow hospitals to accurately describe their processes so that they could improve efficiency and set national standards of health care delivery. “The new hospital classification system will bring opportunity for improvement in national standards of healthcare delivery for Kingdom and the Gulf Region,” Total Care Integrative Health Systems (TCi) director, Dr. Jeremy Cumpston, told newsmen at the Australian Embassy here on Sunday. To date, he said the ICD10-AM Classification (International Classification of Disease Version 10 - Australian Modification) has been instituted internationally in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, Romania and Turkey.
“TCi have an exclusive agreement with the peak distance ICD10-AM training institution internationally. The Health Information Managers Association of Australia (HIMAA), to provide mentored e-health training to ensure hospitals in the Gulf Region have the capacity to code their admissions using ICD10-AM,” he said. It is estimated that there will be a requirement for up to 2,000 trained ICD10-AM coders and health information managers of both sexes in the Kingdom by the year 2012. Coders and health information managers trained in ICD10-AM will have the capacity to work in any international territory using ICD10-AM. “ This will be a good opportunity for the Saudi youths to participate in this program in large numbers, “ the director said.
TCi have recently completed the first ICD10-AM compliance consultancy with King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center and presented a paper on the ICD10-AM classification system at the last e-health Conference in Riyadh in May this year.
Having worked with the peak classification bodies in Australia, Romania and Bulgaria, Cumpston has provided international consulting and software solutions to new ICD10-AM territories. In 2003, Cumpston wrote the original National DRG Implementation for Turkish hospitals, which was ratified and implemented by Turkish Premier Tayyip Erdogan in 2004. Cumpston was clear in recognizing the years of planning and coordination that has resulted in the choice to implement ICD10-AM.
“Total Care Integrative Health Systems applaud the hard work and dedication of Saleh Al-Omair, president of the National Center for Health Insurance Standards (NCHIS) in ensuring the ICD10-AM Classification adoption for the Kingdom,” he said