Data Harmonization Achieved by Large Academic Medical Center

Summary

For one academic medical center, transitioning to Epic and growing through merger and acquisition amassed a large portfolio of legacy
applications.

Case study: Data Harmonization Achieved by Large Academic Medical Center featured image

The Situation

For one academic medical center, transitioning to Epic and growing through merger and acquisition amassed a large portfolio of legacy
applications.

Nine legacy EMRs were initially displaced: Cerner Millennium; Allscripts Sunrise Clinical Manager, TouchWorks, and Care Manager;
MEDITECH; eClinicalWorks; athenahealth; GE Centricity Perinatal; and Greenway Intergy. In total, 3,000 legacy clinical, financial and business software applications stored in 13 data centers needed a data management strategy and scalable action plan to consolidate the data silos and provide easy access to historical records from Epic.

To deliver on its data harmonization goal, the integrated delivery network needed an experienced data management partner offering a proven storage platform, including Epic integration and built-in workflows to support its user needs.

The Solution

After a thorough review of several vendors, Harmony Healthcare IT and its HealthData ArchiverTM solution was selected based on key
criteria, including:

  1. Superior Workflows. User-based workflows support the needs of clinical, HIM, and revenue cycle teams.
  2. Epic Integration. Through MPI patient matching, Single Sign-On from within Epic provides quick patient context access to
    historical records.
  3. Release of Information. Batch and template print and share features enable records release.
  4. Break the Glass. Audit logs and role-based access controls provide extra layers of security and tracking for classified patients.
  5. Security. A HITRUST CSF®-certified platform protects legacy records with hundreds of physical and process security controls.
  6. Expertise. Harmony Healthcare IT brings broad data extraction and archival experience across 550+ software brands.
  7. Implementation. Harmony Healthcare IT’s full-service approach reduces the burden on the healthcare organization’s team.

Data Volume

The multi-year legacy data management program is working. With 72 archives deployed and 30 more in-flight, current data volumes include:

Benefits & Results

22+ Billion

Rows of Archived Data

36+ Million

Patient Records Archived

1.7 Billion

Documents/Images Archived

140 TB

Total Archived Data

A key factor to the long-term success of this data archiving project is the standardized process that positions the organization for future legacy data archiving and decommissioning projects.

HealthData Archiver® is a cloud-based solution that supports the organization’s goal to access legacy clinical and financial data from within Epic.

Key Active Archive Benefits

The project supported the company’s goals and provided numerous benefits, including:

  • Care quality improved with Single Sign-On access to the archive from Epic
  • Time savings for HIM, Clinical and Revenue Cycle users to access legacy records
  • Cost savings totaling tens of millions of dollars
  • Decreased risk for technical vulnerabilities and compliance issues

Lessons Learned

  • Timing – Understand that high quality projects take time and collaboration
  • Extraction – Know the barriers to data that can arise from legacy vendors
  • Expertise – Consider the challenge of finding specialized expertise for  legacy systems
  • Scope – Create a scope, sequence & governance plan to manage archiving across the enterprise
  • Validation – Allocate time and resources for data verification and validation
  • Purging – Document and setup rules for soft and hard record destruction in the archive
May 26 2023

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