5 Reasons EHR Vendors Should Outsource Data Migrations

EHR vendors are tasked with the massive responsibility of taking meticulous care of patient data. As a software company, this means that your staff is highly skilled, focusing their efforts on developing software updates, servicing issues for customers, and building upon their technical skills. While this is critically important to maintaining the company’s workload, it means that their time must be used strategically.

EHR data migrations are typically viewed as a time-waster for EHR vendors. Not only do they require a special skillset, but these migrations must be done with extreme precision and speed. As a result, EHR vendors attempting to handle this task internally find themselves struggling to adequately serve their customers.

Given that safeguarding patient data is everyone’s priority, more and more EHR vendors are turning to an easy solution: outsourcing. Today, we discuss 5 of the most critical reasons that EHR vendors should outsource EHR data migrations.

1.      Refocus Talent

As a successful EHR software company, you have very talented resources that have worked hard to bring your product to market. Their skillset far exceeds the necessary skillset to do data migration work. Assigning those same resources to handle the multitude of various EHR data formats in order to cleanse the data and prepare it for loading into your system is not the best use of their time.

Your talented resources also come at a much higher pay rate than those needed for data migration work, which comes at a huge cost. Not only are you overpaying for this work, but distracting them from the future development of your product leads to lost vision and focus, which ultimately hurts your software. It is also crucial that these resources be available for any hot fixes or other urgent needs with regards to the successful delivery and maintenance of your software. Medical practices depend on your software to deliver quality care to their patients and cannot afford to wait when they have issues.

2.      Legacy System Data Extraction

Most EHR vendors do not assist practices with getting the legacy data out of the existing system, even if they do handle the migration internally. They usually direct the practices  to work with their legacy vendor to get the data to them. This leaves the staff at the practice on their own and, in some cases, they do not want to notify the legacy vendor yet that they will be switching systems. This causes delays in getting data from the practices and also leads to frustration on both sides.

A good EHR migration partner specializes in extracting data from hundreds of legacy EHR systems. They should already know the ins and outs of the legacy system and can assist the practice with extraction quickly and painlessly. This takes a lot of pressure off of the practice staff and physician who already have plenty to worry about.

3.      Expertise

The right EHR Migration partner focuses 100% on EHR data migration, which means they have most likely worked with many more systems and have more diverse experience. It takes focus in order to be the best at something and that is what the right EHR migration partner can bring to the table.

Most of the time they already have scripts and tools built to work with the various legacy systems that speed up the process and produce a higher quality result.  In addition, they have pre-existing relationships and contacts with key people in those legacy companies to expedite the process even further and determine the best approach for getting the data.

4.      Speed

Time is money and the longer it takes to get the data and prepare it for import, the more money is left on the table. It can also cause a go-live date to have to be pushed, which has a domino effect on the entire implementation project. Sometimes practices have given notice to legacy vendors and their EHR system will be shutdown at a certain point. If their go-live date is pushed out because the data is not ready to be imported, they might have to make arrangements to keep the legacy system up and running longer or worse lose access to their data. As a result, it costs the practice more money and delays the EHR vendor from onboarding the practice.

Having the right EHR partner to quickly and painlessly extract and prepare the data helps ensure go-live dates are not pushed. It also allows practices to get onto the new EHR software quicker so that they can start to experience the benefits of the new system.

5.      Quality

Ensuring the highest level of quality during an EHR data migration is often overlooked. EHR systems contain highly sensitive patient data that is bound by HIPAA regulations. As such, migrating this completely and accurately is critical. When it comes to Personal Health Information (PHI) and HIPAA regulations, there is no room for mistakes or mixing up patient data. Doing so would result in a HIPAA violation and be subject to enormous fines as well as negatively impacting the EHR vendor’s reputation and revenue.

Working with a HIPAA-compliant EHR migration partner that has a high-quality, proven migration process reduces the risks associated with EHR migrations. They have seen the majority of the legacy EHR systems and have a lot of experience with quality checking the data for accuracy. Additionally, they have already established a best-practice proven process that EHR vendors and practices can benefit from.

EHR Data Migrations with MDH Insight

To remain successful, EHR vendors must make strategic decisions regarding the best use of their resources. Outsourcing not only ensures that the data is dealt with expert hands, but it frees up the workforce to focus on internal efforts.

At MDH Insight, we are proud to be your trusted partner for EHR data migrations. We convert legacy patient data with unmatched accuracy, speed, and attention to detail. MDH Insight is steadfast in fulfilling our brand promise: We Deliver.

Contact our office today to learn more about our services or get started today with a free EHR system assessment!