Electronic health records (EHR) provide medical practices with a simple and efficient way to store and access patient information. As EHR continues to become more popular in many medical practices, we have seen a rise in the need for EHR data conversion.
The conversion process can become quite complicated if you aren’t familiar with digital development and data mapping, however, an experienced organization, like Desert River Solutions, will work with you and become your trusted data conversion partner.
If you are ready to move to an EHR solution for your practice, this guide will provide you with everything you need to know about EHR data conversion.
What Is EHR Data Conversion?
EHR data conversion is the process of converting existing data into a format that can be imported into an electronic database. In some cases, this is simply converting data from one digital format to another or migrating existing EHR data from one database to another. For others, EHR data conversion involves the scanning of physical paper documents into a digital format, which are then imported into an electronic database.
How to Prepare for Data Conversion
Before we can begin the actual process of converting your electronic medical records, there are a few items that need to be taken care of.
First, we will need to work together to create a fully mapped-out plan for the conversion. This plan should include:
- When the conversion will take place. Data conversion may take weeks, or even months, so you will need to consider your desired end date for full data conversion.
- How much data needs to be converted. If you have data that does not need to be converted and imported to your new EMR platform, you will need to make sure that data is left out during data collection and mapping
- Security measures. Because patient records have sensitie information, we will need to review security policies and processes for the conversion to ensure that no patient data is lost or publicized. This portion of the plan should also include a detailed write-up of security measures within the EHR platform, i.e., security permissions, access monitoring, and patient record requests.
These elements will help ensure that your EHR data conversion will run smoothly.
How Does EHR Data Conversion Work?
Data conversion is fairly complicated, because it requires detailed data mapping, transformation, and migration to protect against data loss and ensure patient security. However, the entire conversion process is completed in four major steps.
Extraction
No matter what kind of files you have, we will have to “extract” all of the data that you want converted from your current records. If we are converting your data from one EHR platform to another, we will extract the data from your current platform onto a secure server. If you have physical files, we will have to scan them so that they are in a digital format, and upload them to a secure server.
Once all of the data has been extracted from the existing record storage solution, we will review it with you to ensure that no data has been left out. Then, we can move on to the next step.
Conversion
Depending upon the type of files you currently have, we will need to convert them to meet the format of your new EHR platform. For those with physical files, the transformation typically takes place during the scanning process, however, there may be some extra formatting that takes place after the physical files are scanned onto a secure server.
If you already have EHR and are moving to a new platform, you may need data transformation, but this depends entirely on the format of files in your new platform. In some cases, the new platform has additional information fields or different field labels, which your data will need to match to be correctly converted.
During this step, there will be a number of quality checks to ensure that data has not been corrupted or lost before it is imported.
Import
Once your data has been transformed into the correct format, we will import it into the new EHR platform. Before the import, more quality checks are performed to ensure that the data mapping is accurate. Once the data is verified, we will import it on a secure, encrypted server to the new platform, ensuring the highest level of security to prevent any data loss.
Validation
After the data is converted and imported to your new EHR platform, it will need to be reviewed and validated to ensure that no data was lost, corrupted, or imported incorrectly. If there is any lost or corrupted data, we will help create a plan for pinpointing the issue and restoring the data.
If the data has been reviewed and validated, you can move forward with your new EHR platform and begin to create new records directly within that platform.
EHR Data Conversion Services from Desert River Solutions
The switch to a new electronic records platform can be overwhelming for office staff and providers. Relieve the stress of the transition by handing off the data conversion process to us.
Contact us today to find out how easy we can make your EMR or EHR extraction and migration.