Background to PHISC
PHISC is an organisation within the private health sector which has as its goal the maximizing of co-operation in health information standards, ideally across the country.
PHISC was established in 1983 and became a member organization in 2007. It has numerous organizations as members. These include health professional organizations, private hospitals, software & switching companies, the Council for Medical Schemes, Standards SA (a division of the SA Bureau of Standards, SABS), the Medical Research Council and other stakeholders in the Health Information environment. The NDoH attends meetings of the PHISC.
The principal objective PHISC is to agree, communicate, provide implementation guidelines and monitor wherever possible, national health information standards in the private health industry and to do so with maximum co-operation with the State and all other interested parties
Structure of PHISC
PHISC as a membership organization consists of a Management Committee and sub-committees that contribute to the following processes:Software Technical
- Adoption and maintenance of the South African Edifact MedClm standard
- Development of standardised content for paper and electronic messages transmitted between organisations; e.g. the standardised claim form
- Development of standardised paper layouts and XML schemas for standardised content
- Consults on software and I.T. issues to the other PHISC sub-committees
Diagnostic and Procedural Standards
- Performed the groundwork for the implementation of ICD-10
- Implementation and oversight of Complete CPT for South Africa - a procedure coding standard currently used widely in the private healthcare sector in S.A.
- Standardisation and adoption of place of service & disposal codes-disposal codes describe the patients discharge status, e.g. discharged from an acute care facility to a step-down facility
- On request from the NDoH, completed & submitted a high level feedback report on the Essential Drug List ICD-10 coding
- This sub-committee has a technical coding sub-committee that actively participates in the ICD-10 Task Team
Privacy and Confidentiality
- Conduct review of National Health Acts & Regulations to understand their impact on Private Healthcare
- Development & adoption of a PHISC Privacy & Confidentiality document
- Provided input to the Law Reform Commission on Privacy Bill
- Current activity: review of the Child Care Act to assess impact
Pharmaceutical Coding
- Development of pharmaceutical coding crosswalks (e.g. NAPPI to NSN)
- Research & evaluation of international pharmaceutical coding schemas
Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG)
- Research & evaluation of international DRGs
- Established a task team with the NDoH in March 2008 and is currently evaluating international procedure coding schemas
Electronic Health Record
- Established in January 2008 with a view to participate in the National Electronic Health Record process