Data Migration Process
What data will be migrated?
The Health Information Standards Committee for Alberta (HISCA)
medical summary of patient clinical data that includes over 300
data elements to ensure continuity of patient care. It establishes
the necessary and sufficient patient information that should be
transferred from one physician office system to another to support
informed medical care in the asbsence os the entire medical record.
Ability to migrate all data elements will vary by legacy system and
new qualified service provider (QSP) electronic medical record
(EMR) solution. The complete list and details are available.
To ensure there was the capability to transfer patient data, the
Vendor Conformance nd Usability Requirements (VCUR) 2006 mandated
all vendors must have a transfer of patient data (ToPD) capability
build into the system. ToPD is the basis for physicians to move
patient data from a legacy EMR system to the new VCUR 2009 EMR
solution.
Data migration and transfer of patient data does not replace the
need for physicians to preserve their original patient records in a
format that is medically legally acceptable under the College of
Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta retention guidelines.
Establishing how much data can be migrated
To successfully migrate data from a legacy EMR system to a QSP
EMR solution, the data migration vendor, iSOFT (who recently
acquired BridgeForward), has created templates to transfer
information between systems. These templates are based on the
standards established by HISCA that specify the key data elements
required for continuity of patient care.
Prior to choosing a QSP EMR vendor, a Custodian Assessment
Service (CAS) must be conducted by POSP to assess the quality of
physician data and any impact that may have on data migration. This
assessment will provide physicians with clear information about
their options in terms of data migration (the medical summary data
elements), data retention (original records, audit logs, context)
and the results that can be expected based on the original data
quality, legacy vendor cooperation and product capability.
Migrating the data in a clinic situation
The CAS recommendation report will help determine the data
migration approach that will be incorporated into the Approved
Project Plan (APP). During implementation, a data sample will be
loaded into the new EMR solution prior to go-live to provide the
physician with a final opportunity to approve the amount of quality
of data moving to the new EMR solution.
The Vendors
BridgeForward Software Inc. www.bridgeforwardsoftware.com
iSOFT PLC. www.isoftplc.com
Updated Data Migration fact sheet coming soon.