The Situation A MEDITECH customer since 1996, Magnolia Regional Health Center (MRHC) upgraded from MEDITECH MAGIC to the 6.1 platform. In the upgrade, two years of clinical data was migrated to 6.1, which left more than 20 years of legacy clinical, financial (accounts receivable), and business data (payroll, GL) trapped in silos across each facility. The legacy application portfolio included eight legacy applications, 26 legacy databases and more than 350,000 patient records. To access legacy records, clinical and health information management (HIM) teams needed to log into multiple, disparate systems. “We had legacy data sitting out there in unsupported, unpatched systems. We needed to get that data out primarily for regulatory purposes and then retire those applications,” explains Brian Davis, CHCIO, Chief Information Officer. The 200-bed acute care community hospital in Corinth, Mississippi needed a partner that could archive the legacy records to ensure easy access by clinicians and HIM, as well as compliance with state retention and 21st Century Cures Act regulations. The A/R wind down of the financial records from within the archive solution was also imperative to the project. The Solution Brian Davis said MRHC selected Harmony Healthcare IT to handle its legacy data management strategy primarily because it has “more experience in archiving than the other vendors and that the archive design would be patient centric with a Single Sign-On from the go-forward MEDITECH EMR.” The two-phased archiving project includes acute EMR data in phase 1 and ambulatory data in phase 2. Harmony Healthcare IT’s active archive solution, HealthData Archiver®, positions MRHC well for future release of information requests from patients, other providers, payers and other parties. In addition, HealthData Archiver® provides A/R wind down with the flexibility of utilizing a collections agency with specific permissions which avoids the need to manually enter data. MRHC selected Harmony Healthcare IT as its archiving vendor because it could deliver: Exceptional usability in terms of Single Sign-On integration, navigation and the ability to easily find information Detailed functionality including the ability to wind down A/R, release information within HIM workflows, and purge records once they’ve met the retention policy Solid value with a focus on low recurring costs and a fair total cost of ownership Vendor selection was based on an evaluation matrix of 26 measurements in 7 categories: Usability Functionality Reporting Vendor Reputation/Support Implementation Cost Security Cost Savings Generated from Archiving is Significant Phase 1 – Estimated cost savings of more than $300,000 over a 5-year period. This estimate is conservative as it does not include staff time cost savings for having one integrated location to access information or the maintenance cost from a scanning/archiving tool. Key cost-savings measurements: • Discontinuation of prior EHR support fees • Decrease in IT management/overhead to support legacy applications • Productivity gains from single release of information process, integrated access • Reduction in hardware and virtualization support Benefits & Results Single Sign-On – “Moving to a single patient record from scattered records located within individual facilities is a big step forward,” said Davis. The Single Sign-On capability provides users with 24/7 accessibility to legacy records from within the active MEDITECH EMR. Purging Functionality – “The granular level of purge parameters within HealthData Archiver® provides superior record management and compliance compared to our previous solutions,” explains Davis. A/R Wind Down – “We needed a solution that would support A/R wind down. We started with the Transaction Posting Module and are adding on Collection Agency Management function which is a big benefit as we won’t have to manually enter data into the archive,” said Davis. Scalable Solution – “As we look into acquisitions and bringing on additional ambulatory facilities, we need a solution that is scalable and can move and grow with us. Any system we bring to Harmony, they have experience and knowledge about it already,” said Davis.