About PHISC

Background to PHISC

PHISC was established in 1983 and became a member organisation in 2007. The PHISC Trust has been registered with the Master of the High Court, Cape Town, on 21 August 2012.

PHISC has numerous organisations as members. These include health professional organisations, private hospitals, software and switching companies, the Council for Medical Schemes, the Medical Research Council and other stakeholders in the Healthcare Information environment. The NDoH attends meetings of the PHISC.

Please refer to the attached PHISC Policy and Procedure Handbook for detailed information.

PHISC has been registered as a level 4 BBBEE contributor.

Structure of PHISC

PHISC as a membership organisation and consists of a Management Committee and sub-committees that contribute to the following processes:

Clinical Coding 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 National ICD-10 Implementation Task Team.

Healthcare Information Governance

• 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

Messaging Standards

• Adoption and maintenance of the PHISC 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

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
• This sub-committee has been declared dormant.

Electronic Health Record

• Established in January 2008 with a view to participate in the National Electronic Health Record process.