Healthcare data is growing exponentially. Compliance requirements are becoming increasingly complex. Mergers and acquisitions continue to rise. A solid lifecycle data management strategy isn’t a nice to have—it’s a must. Data management essentials include data access, interoperability, and compliance adherence.

Data Access

Today, healthcare systems must ensure providers have access to the full clinical narrative at the time of care, patients have simplified, centralized access to health information, and that all protected health information (PHI) is secure. That data must be accurate, and the control and monitoring of who can access that data is essential.

Interoperability

Coordinated care goes hand in hand with coordinated systems across the enterprise. If EHRs aren’t on the same page, it not only leads to potential gaps in care, but also increased costs associated with keeping disparate systems up and running.

Best practices for interoperability:

• Implement standards such as HL7 and FHIR for seamless data exchange between different EHR systems and healthcare providers.
• Reduce the number of active applications to improve operational efficiency and reduce maintenance costs.
• Use secure, efficient methods for extracting and converting data from legacy systems to newer platforms while ensuring no data loss or integrity issues.
• Make patient data readily available to authorized personnel across the organization to improve clinical decision-making.

Compliance and Security

Strong compliance and security programs are essential for organizations to create and update processes, policies, and procedures so they are up-to-date and in line with regulations.

Best practices for compliance and security:

• Adhere to healthcare-specific regulations such as HIPAA, the 21st Century Cures Act, and the HITECH Act.
• Implement encryption and secure data storage protocols to protect PHI.
• Consider best-in-class security frameworks like HITRUST and evaluate vendors closely.
• Maintain detailed audit trails to track access to and changes in data and regularly conduct internal audits.
• Develop a comprehensive data governance framework that defines roles, responsibilities, and data stewardship.

Harmony Healthcare IT: Supporting Data Management

One of the best ways to support data lifecycle management is by consolidating disparate applications containing patient, finanical or business data.

This generally includes extracting data from applications and converting it to a new go-forward application, such as an EHR like Epic, Oracle Health, or MEDITECH. Whether you are implementing a new EHR or aquiring facilities that need to brought onto your go-forward platforms, Harmony Healthcare IT offers data services and expertise to tackle these initiatives through its comprehensive HealthData Platform^™.

The data that does not get migrated to the new application can then be consolidated and retained in an active archive, like HealthData Archiver^®, that enables health systems to meet security and compliance requirements while providing easy access to legacy patient, employee or business records from the go-forward EHR.

• HealthData Archiver^® complies with record retention mandates and supports the interoperability requirements of the 21st Century Act.
• Hosted in a Tier 3, SOC2 HITRUST-certified data center, HealthData Archiver^® provides secure, streamlined and compliant access to legacy records. We adhere to 545+ controls pulling from HIPAA/HITECH, ISO27001, NIST SP 800-53, COBIT, and PCI DSS security standards. We encrypt data at rest and in-transit, and audit user activity and internal threats with LDAP and auditing tool integration.
• The archive’s easy-to-use features include release of information workflows, Single Sign-On, integrated clinical views, revenue cycle features, search capabilities, and workflow improvements.

Just as healthcare continues to evolve, our solutions do, too. We are committed to being a partner that overcomes barriers to help you solve today’s healthcare challenges.