Transitioning to Epic Community Connect: A Guide to Managing Legacy Data

We all know the importance of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems in today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape cannot be overstated.

According to research statistics, Epic EHR holds the largest market share of 58% among large hospitals in the US. And, with Epic Community Connect in place, these large hospitals can share their Epic instances with the smaller health organizations that do not have the capability to afford Epic.

But it is important to note, as useful as it is, this process comes with its own set of challenges.

1. These smaller organizations require transferring some of their existing EHR records to Epic (typically, organizations do not transfer ALL of their records into Epic upon implementation).
2. The records that are not transferred into Epic still require a system to maintain them, allow users to access them, and allow their release upon request.

One key solution to this is having a good health data archival solution in place for these remaining records.

Health data archival solutions are designed to securely store and manage large volumes of legacy patient data, including clinical, financial, and administrative information, in a way that is compliant with healthcare industry regulations and standards. They can help ensure historical patient data is preserved and can be easily accessed in the new system, particularly in the scenario where a healthcare organization is transitioning from one EHR system to another.

Having a good health data archival solution in place can help smaller health organizations to ensure that patient data from their legacy EHR system is accurately and securely migrated to Epic. Additionally, once the data has been migrated to Epic, the archival solution can continue playing a role in managing and preserving the organization’s historical patient data, ensuring that it remains accessible and usable over time.

To break it down, here is exactly how a health data archival solution can manage legacy data for small hospitals when they are transitioning to Epic Community Connect:

• Data Storage: A health data archival solution securely stores patient data from smaller hospitals that share an Epic instance with a larger hospital. This ensures patient data is always available and easily accessible, even if the smaller hospital experiences technical issues or downtime.
• Data Retrieval: A health data archival solution provides a way for smaller hospitals to retrieve patient data from the larger hospital’s Epic instance. This ensures providers have access to up-to-date patient information, which leads to better decision-making and improved patient outcomes.
• Data Management: A health data archival solution provides tools for managing patient data, such as data backup and disaster recovery services. This ensures patient data is always protected and available, even in the event of a disaster or system outage.
• Compliance: A health data archival solution helps smaller hospitals meet regulatory requirements for data storage and management, such as HIPAA compliance. This reduces the risk of data breaches and other security incidents.

Overall, a health data archival solution helps smaller hospitals effectively participate in Epic Community Connect, and benefit from access to a larger EHR system, while also ensuring patient data is always secure, available, structured, and formatted correctly, preventing any data loss or corruption. Archival solutions, compliant with the healthcare industry regulations and standards, in particular, are ideal for preserving the historical patient data of these health organizations.