Key Features
There have been a number of Information standards in use in the Health care industry aimed at augmented efficiency and delivery of better health care service. Health care givers led by the World Organization of Family Doctors have been instrumental in advancing health information standards. The main developments in health information standards include ICPC- 1, ICPC- 1E, ICPC- PLUS and ICPC- 2 (Benson). This study aims at enumerating features of ICPC- 2, organization application and the current issues related to ICPC- 2.
ICPC- 2 is a health information standard classification system published in 1998 by World Organization of Family doctors (WONCA). It entails classifying medical concepts based on their relevance to primary care (Kuhn, Warren and Leong, 226). The ICPC- 2 classifies primary care content in seven components and seventeen chapters based on principles of symptoms, reasons for encounter, medical interventions needed, diseases, and diagnosis (Kuhn et al., 227). ICPC- 2 uses both paper-based and electronic-based medical records systems. This is made possible by ICPC-2 through classifying chapters based on body systems through accepting that localization comes before aetiology in classification. The symmetrical structure and uniform numbering of chapters allow use of physical records in classifying of primary care information (Okkes, Jamouelle, Lamberts, and Bentzen, 102).
There is a utilization of four data collection levels in ICPC-2 that include individual patient level where information is collected through patient interviews and diagnosis. The other levels are regional research level, the clinical audit and activity analysis and practice level. ICPC-2E published in 2002, is an improvement of the ICPC-2 presented in the electronic form to allow the use of the application in electronic medical record system. ICPU-2 classifies problems into seven components. The main components utilized by ICPU-2 are symptoms, diagnosis, screening and prevention, and treatment, procedures and medication.
Implementation Example in an Organization
The organization with an extensive and successful use of ICPC-2 is Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, HIBA. HIBA, founded in 1853, has two hospitals that have 750 beds and 23 clinics with an approximate of 150,000 people covered by its insurance plan. HIBA is both a non-profit making academic centre and a healthcare providing institution. It employs 1500 physicians and 3500 employees for daily running of medical and education needs. HIBA receives at least 36,000 in-patients and more than 2,400,000 outpatient visits annually. A coding department for physician input was established by HIBA to oversee implementation of information standards in the institution. HIBA uses three standard types of coding including ICPC-2, ICD-10 and Snomed CT. The use of the ICPC-2 classification system has aided HIBA in augmenting work quality as it aids clinical audits to meet the administration needs of the organization. The use of clinical audit has aided HIBA in examining the required care for chronic illnesses and its care provision in the community. The better understanding of problems in the facility has aided in the realization of better quality healthcare for the Buenos Aires area and beyond owing to the use of ICPC-2, ICD-10 and Snomed CT.
Current issues
In recent years, there has been increased recognition of ICPU-2 as demonstrated by its augmented use in the world as a classification system of family and primary care (Kuhn et al., 234). This is evidenced by the increase in its use in Europe and Australia. There exist issues related to ICPC-2 including difficulty in coding complaints that have no definite diagnosis. Further, the lack of a feedback mechanism for checking the correctness of coding is another challenge facing ICPC-2 (Bernstein, Hollingworth, Viner, Shearman, Labelle, and Thomas, 843). The main areas affected by the ICPU-2 challenges are psychological and social problems affecting patients.
Works Cited
Benson, Tim. Principles of Health Interoperability HL7 and SNOMED. London: Springer, 2012. Print.
Bernstein, Robert M., Gary R. Hollingworth, Gary Viner, John Shearman, Claude Labelle and Roger Thomas. “Reliability issues in coding encounters in primary care using an ICPC/ICD-10-based controlled clinical terminology”. J Am Med Inf Assoc (Symposium Supplement) 21 (1997): 843. Print.
Kuhn, Klaus, James Warren and Tze-Yun Leong. Medinfo 2007: Proceedings of the 12th World Congress on Health Medical) Informatics, [Brisbane, Australia, 2007]. New York: IOS Press, 2007. Print.
Okkes, Inge, Micheline Jamouelle, Henk Lamberts and Niels Bentzen. “ICPC-2-E: the electronic version of ICPC-2. Differences from the printed version and the consequences.” Family Practice 17.2 (2000): 101-107. Print.