While there’s no shortage of vendors who can help you migrate data, many aren’t well-versed in the complexity and regulatory requirements of handling health data. Yet, inaccurate or incomplete data has a profound, long-term impact on your organization’s ability to stay compliant and deliver high-quality healthcare services.
Let’s explore why you should partner with a healthcare-focused data migration services vendor to support your cloud data migration initiative, mitigate risks, and enhance data quality management.
Vendor Capabilities to Prioritize When you Migrate Data
A healthcare-focused data migration services vendor helps you address various healthcare data management challenges, such as unifying data from disparate sources and in multiple formats while ensuring regulatory compliance throughout the data lifecycle. It brings the following solutions and expertise to the table:
- Customizable data migration services to meet your specific needs
- Experience with electronic health records (EHR) and other health information systems
- Expertise in handling EHR data structures and standards
- Knowledge of HIPAA, other regulatory requirements, and data retention policies
- Scalable solutions to handle the volume and complexity of healthcare data
- Strong data privacy and security measures
How to Partner With a Healthcare-Focused Data Migration Services Provider
A successful partnership with a data migration services vendor is a two-way street. Here’s how to collaborate with your vendor to migrate data successfully and modernize your healthcare organization:
- Articulate expectations at the start of the project. Ensure your vendor understands the purpose and expected outcomes of the data migration project. Ask the vendor to be clear about what it can and cannot achieve within your given time frame and budget. If you need assistance with non-technical aspects of data migration (e.g., staff training or change management), it’s best to know up front whether your vendor can provide the support.
- Create a project plan to migrate data. Work with your data migration vendor to establish clear objectives, scope, and a realistic timeline so you can effectively manage expectations and project milestones.
- Design a strategy. Convey the core data elements you need for continuity of care and compliance. Ask your data migration vendor to articulate how it will map this data and handle complex structured and unstructured EHR data. Align on your approach to clinical data management and how your data will move from the old system to the new one using HIPAA-compliant methods to preserve privacy and security. Your strategy should also identify potential risks and mitigation strategies (e.g., inconsistent data formats or data quality issues).
- Determine cloud vs. hybrid approach. Will your migration strategy be cloud-based or hybrid? According to a 2023 HIMSS Analytics Report, 78% of healthcare organizations have either completed a cloud-based migration or are migrating their data to the cloud. Your vendor should help you consider the pros and cons of cloud data migration.
- Consider legacy data. Your strategy should address what data you intend to archive and why. Archiving your data can reduce the volume of data to migrate, ensure optimal system performance, and lower data migration costs. It can also protect you against data breaches that cost organizations nearly $11 million on average. A healthcare-focused data migration services provider can offer best-practice strategies for handling legacy data.
- Align on data governance. Agree on data cleansing criteria with your vendor before data migration begins. Defining data quality management metrics is easy when partnering with a healthcare-focused data migration services vendor that already understands the importance of accurate, complete, and timely data in healthcare.
- Provide necessary access and resources. Your vendor will need access to all data you plan to migrate. Prepare an inventory of your data assets and storage systems. This information streamlines the process for providing your data migration services vendor with necessary access.
- Communicate consistently. As you engage end users and solicit feedback, pass this information to your data migration services provider. Likewise, your vendor should provide regular updates and keep all stakeholders informed.
- Perform thorough testing and measure performance. Validate the data post-migration to ensure your vendor has transformed and transferred the data correctly. Also, monitor performance with pilot and incremental testing to improve data quality management. These strategies allow you and your vendor to identify potential problems and make targeted adjustments. When you work with a healthcare-focused data migration services vendor, they already have ongoing testing and monitoring in place to mitigate the risks of data migration errors and omissions.
The Right Partner Is Key to Successful Healthcare Data Migration
Partnering with a healthcare-focused data migration services provider helps ensure proper data quality management and sets the foundation for transforming healthcare delivery. Olah’s health data archiving solution helps you enhance data accessibility, improve patient care continuity, promote cost efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance, leverage data analytics, and boost patient engagement. Contact us to learn more about our safe, secure, and fast archiving solution.
