What are the Medical Coding Software Requirements?

authors:

avatar M Ahmadi 1 , avatar L Shahmoradi 2 , * , avatar M Hoseini 3 , avatar R Bagherzadeh 4

Assistance professor in Department of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Ph.D. in Health Information Management
Faculty of member in School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Masters of Science in Medical Records, School of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences
Masters in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Faculty member of School of Management and Medical Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Shiraz E-Medical Journal: Vol.11, issue 4; 225-243
published online: October 4, 2010
article type: Research Article
received: July 6, 2010
accepted: July 30, 2010

how to cite: Ahmadi M, Shahmoradi L, Hoseini M, Bagherzadeh R. What are the Medical Coding Software Requirements?. Shiraz E-Med J. 2010;11(4):20451. 

Abstract

Objective:

To identify medical coding software requirements

Design:

To identify medical coding software requirements, 15 medical coding software products used in Iran and 6 medical coding software products used in other countries, were surveyed. Based on a literature review, a checklist containing general and specific features of medical coding software was developed.

Measurement:

The criteria used for this comparison are as follows: operating system type; connected to other departments or stand alone; and general and specific requirements of medical coding software.

Results:

DOS and Windows operating systems were used in 4_(29%) and 11_(71%) software products, respectively. Just 3 software products were networked products, the others being stand alone. Flexibility and improvement were 42.8% and 41%, respectively. Numerical and alphabetic lists of diseases and surgeries enjoyed the highest and the lowest frequency with 93.3% and 6.6%, respectively. In general, there are lots of weaknesses in medical coding software products in Iran.

Conclusion:

Some specific features should be included in medical coding software, such as: flexibility; user-friendliness; back up ability; satisfaction of health care needs; software support, data recovery: data sharing; parallel searching; data security, integrity, validity, and accessibility; databank coding; death information recording; and researcher identification.

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