Organization Overview
A leading academic health system with nearly a dozen hospitals and hundreds of care locations across the Midwest, the organization employs thousands of physicians and clinicians and is nationally recognized for its leadership in research, innovation, and patient care. Many of its hospitals are ranked among “America’s Best” by U.S. News & World Report.
Organization Quick Facts
- Type: Integrated academic health system
- Size: 10 hospitals and hundreds of provider locations
- Go Forward System: Epic
Solution
Blue Elm data conversion services for multiple legacy systems, including:
- MEDITECH Client/Server EMR
- MEDITECH Magic Reports
- MEDITECH Scanned Image files
- MEDITECH Client/Server Pathology Reports
- LSS Ambulatory MPM Images
- Omtool Scanned Images and Nursing Reports
- Hyland/OnBase Scanned Images and Archived Reports
Challenge
As the health system expanded through multiple acquisitions, it faced an increasingly complex challenge: managing legacy data across a wide array of disparate healthcare information systems.
Each acquisition brought additional platforms, including MEDITECH and Cerner EHRs, PACS and LIS systems, and document management and capture tools such as Omtool and OnBase. Each system added new data to either migrate into the enterprise Epic EHR or transfer to the organization’s comprehensive data archive.
The challenge wasn’t just extracting data from these legacy systems — it was doing so efficiently, accurately, and completely. Finding a partner with deep expertise across multiple platforms was critical.
Having a partner that is familiar with the architecture of these different types of systems is really paramount to getting the job done correctly. They need to know the processes to get that data out, extract it, and then be able to turn it around into a readable report from the system.
Solution
The health system first partnered with Blue Elm nearly a decade ago for support in extracting data from Omtool, a document capture and workflow solution that has since been acquired by Upland Software.
The health system had acquired a hospital that used Omtool and needed to archive the legacy data to decommission the system. The project was complex, with documents embedded within a proprietary platform, but Blue Elm completed it on time and on budget.
We archive data from legacy systems into our comprehensive data warehouse, but every application is different — every version of MEDITECH is different, especially the older ones. Blue Elm has been familiar with all of these systems.
Results
Blue Elm’s deep expertise in handling complex, multi-platform data extraction has proven invaluable for the large and growing health system. Since that initial engagement, Blue Elm has partnered with the health system on nearly 10 archiving projects across diverse systems and vendors, consistently meeting timelines and quality expectations.
Those projects have enabled the health system to decommission several legacy systems, eliminating security vulnerabilities and reducing maintenance, licensing, and infrastructure costs.
What distinguishes Blue Elm is their depth of knowledge across diverse platforms. They’ve delivered the correct data, and they meet their timelines. If they say they’re going to do something, they do it.
About Blue Elm
For more than 20 years, Blue Elm has provided MEDITECH data solutions to hospitals and technology vendors worldwide. Founded by former MEDITECH employees, we bring unmatched expertise in healthcare data conversions, extractions, and validation. Our solutions are trusted by 500+ organizations across multiple solutions and all MEDITECH platforms (Magic, C/S, and Expanse).