EMR Data Migration, What Options Are Available?
Two methods of migrating EMR data are available, manual and electronic.
The difference between the two can be documented and reduced to a business decision.
It is important to take out the emotion that anyone on your staff may have regarding this choice.
You are making a decision that will impact your business for years to come.
It needs to be a business decision.
Two of the most important factors in the decision are: 1.
Lack of accuracy in manual data entry 2.
Cost of distracting highly trained staff for redundant and low productivity data entry tasks 3.
Time is a third factor may or may not affect your business decision regarding manual entry.
If your schedule is reasonable or tight, there is really no room for manually entering EMR data into a new system.
Regarding specific EMR data types, Visit Note records appear to be the most common selection among practices requesting an electronic data record migration.
Depending on the needs of a practice, any or all clinical data can be moved to your new Clinical System.
Clinical data migrations lend themselves to menu selection.
The clinic specialty eliminates some data types because they are not used in the clinic.
An example might be immunizations in a Urology Clinic.
Another self-selecting factor is how the clinic used the legacy EMR.
You might do immunizations routinely but if you recorded the related chart information in a place other than the legacy EMR system, then the data will not be available for conversion.
An alternative might be getting that immunization chart information from its source, assuming it is stored electronically.
A common set of the most often selected of options include: Visit Notes Problem List Allergies Medications, past and current Immunizations Flowsheet Data Lab Results You may know these data type by different names, for example Flowsheet data includes vitals and labs in some EMR systems.
Determine what you have by name and make yourself a small cross reference table to translate between vendors.
Keep your discussions to an "apples to apples" comparison.
Whatever data you choose to migrate, be prepared to thoroughly test for accurate results.
First, check the actual data in your legacy system for accuracy and clarity.
Save the results of that task to use in testing the conversion for accuracy and completeness.
If the legacy data is available in digital form then it can probably be migrated to your new EMR as discreet data.
If the data is only available as an image or a scanned document then expect to see it migrated in the same format.
Images and scanned documents are actually good data formats for migration.
There are common image standards that nearly every vendor uses which increases the likelihood of a successful migration with no loss of clarity or data.
The choices will be easier and the results better if you pay your due diligence up front.
The difference between the two can be documented and reduced to a business decision.
It is important to take out the emotion that anyone on your staff may have regarding this choice.
You are making a decision that will impact your business for years to come.
It needs to be a business decision.
Two of the most important factors in the decision are: 1.
Lack of accuracy in manual data entry 2.
Cost of distracting highly trained staff for redundant and low productivity data entry tasks 3.
Time is a third factor may or may not affect your business decision regarding manual entry.
If your schedule is reasonable or tight, there is really no room for manually entering EMR data into a new system.
Regarding specific EMR data types, Visit Note records appear to be the most common selection among practices requesting an electronic data record migration.
Depending on the needs of a practice, any or all clinical data can be moved to your new Clinical System.
Clinical data migrations lend themselves to menu selection.
The clinic specialty eliminates some data types because they are not used in the clinic.
An example might be immunizations in a Urology Clinic.
Another self-selecting factor is how the clinic used the legacy EMR.
You might do immunizations routinely but if you recorded the related chart information in a place other than the legacy EMR system, then the data will not be available for conversion.
An alternative might be getting that immunization chart information from its source, assuming it is stored electronically.
A common set of the most often selected of options include: Visit Notes Problem List Allergies Medications, past and current Immunizations Flowsheet Data Lab Results You may know these data type by different names, for example Flowsheet data includes vitals and labs in some EMR systems.
Determine what you have by name and make yourself a small cross reference table to translate between vendors.
Keep your discussions to an "apples to apples" comparison.
Whatever data you choose to migrate, be prepared to thoroughly test for accurate results.
First, check the actual data in your legacy system for accuracy and clarity.
Save the results of that task to use in testing the conversion for accuracy and completeness.
If the legacy data is available in digital form then it can probably be migrated to your new EMR as discreet data.
If the data is only available as an image or a scanned document then expect to see it migrated in the same format.
Images and scanned documents are actually good data formats for migration.
There are common image standards that nearly every vendor uses which increases the likelihood of a successful migration with no loss of clarity or data.
The choices will be easier and the results better if you pay your due diligence up front.
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