EHR Data Conversion Best Practices for New System Go-Live Preparation Part II

In part one of this two-part series, we discussed legacy system cleanup and pre-load data abstraction & conversion best practices as your healthcare organization prepares for its new EHR system. Let’s discuss additional tips for data abstraction and conversion work for your strategic EHR transition.

1. Staffing Aid – The process of reviewing the patient in the legacy system and then reviewing the data in the new system is tedious work. However, it is a great learning opportunity for clinical staff, who should start practicing the process as soon as possible. Many organizations need to supplement staff to accommodate the number of scheduled patients for the first 2-3 weeks after go live. Some organizations utilize residents, temporary administrative teams, or retired staff for this work. Many others use conversion support vendors like MTS to cost-effectively supplement the labor. If your organization uses a third-party, make sure their resources have direct experience with this critical assignment. Not only will the resources need to know the new EHR system, but they will also need to know the legacy systems, depending on how many different source systems the patient data will be coming from.
2. CCD Load – Utilize a Continuity of Care Document (CCD) load from the legacy system. A CCD is an electronic document exchange standard for sharing patient summary information. This format of data can be extracted from the legacy system and loaded via HL7 into the new EHR once the demographic data is loaded into the EHR for each patient. Users will see the data and have the chance to reconcile this data and add it to the EHR patient chart. This significantly reduces data entry time into the new system. Each scheduled patient will still need to be reviewed and verified against the legacy system for accuracy.
3. Data Archiving – How will you store and access legacy patient and financial data on the system is sunset? Consider an EHR data archiving tool like CareFinity to have long-term, reliable access to your legacy data. Utilizing a tool like CareFinity can speed up and reduce efforts needed in the overall conversion process, while still granting providers the functions necessary to work with archived charts and meet regulatory needs.
4. Data audit – When the patient data transition is complete, it is critical to audit data that has been moved into the new EHR system. A common best practice is to have providers select 10% to double check for data accuracy. The data audit is a learning opportunity for clinical staff to learn the system prior to go live and that critical first patient visit.

With the big day for new EHR system go live approaching, you can now rest assured that those first scheduled patients have matched critical data ready and waiting for new system use. With these healthcare data abstraction & conversion best practices in place, end users will feel more comfortable and prepared for their clinical care visits. Within a few weeks, as staff have developed muscle memory of the new system, they can reap the benefits of a unified IT landscape across the continuum of care.

 

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