Effectively managing the large amounts of data generated by health systems is essential for smooth operations, meeting legal requirements, and delivering quality care to patients. A study by HIMSS Analytics found that, on average, a health system uses 16 distinct EHR platforms, with most hospitals having at least 10 different EHRs - most of which do not exchange data. Now more than 15 years since the impact push to electronic health records, more than 50% of EHR vendors have gone out of business or merged into larger vendors. As a result, the number of deprecated systems has increased exponentially and now is a great time to consider a move to a vendor neutral cloud based archival solution.
Here are seven important features to look for when choosing a data archival solution for your healthcare organization.
Healthcare organizations have to follow strict rules about how long data should be kept and how patient privacy should be protected. In the U.S., this includes rules like HIPAA. A good data archival solution ensures that all data is stored securely, with access controls in place and a record of who accesses the data. This helps healthcare organizations stay in compliance with regulations, reduce risks, and ensure that important data is kept safe.
Healthcare systems often use multiple tools and applications. A good data archival solution should work smoothly with existing systems, especially Electronic Health Records (EHR). It should also support standards like HL7 and FHIR, which allow for easy sharing of data between systems. This integration helps ensure that archived data remains accessible and useful across different platforms, improving patient care.
Healthcare data is growing at an incredible rate. A strong data archival solution needs to be able to handle increasing amounts of data without slowing down. A scalable solution means your system can grow along with your organization, maintaining fast performance like in record retrieval or while searching for a patient even as data volumes increase. This ensures your data management processes stay efficient, no matter how much data you’re dealing with.
Protecting patient data is a top priority. A good archival solution should have advanced security features to protect data from being accessed by unauthorized people. These features include encryption, strict access controls, and regular security checks. These measures help keep patient data safe and prevent breaches that could damage trust or cause legal issues.
Different types of data need to be kept for different amounts of time. A good data archival solution allows you to set customized rules for how long different kinds of data should be stored. It can automatically move data to archives when it’s no longer needed for daily use and delete data when it’s no longer required. This helps healthcare organizations stay in compliance with laws and makes storage more efficient.
Although archived data isn’t often needed, it’s important that it can be quickly retrieved when necessary. A good data archival solution should have an easy-to-use interface that allows authorized people to search and access the archived data quickly. This ensures that important information is available when it’s needed for patient care or audits, without causing delays in the workflow.
A data archival solution should save money in the long run by reducing the need to maintaining old EHR licenses, specialized staff for legacy applications, or even on-premise hardware to keep the data accessible. A cost-effective solution balances the initial implementation cost with savings over time. With cloud storage, healthcare organizations can also lower the costs associated with physical storage and hardware maintenance, all while keeping data secure and accessible.
Choosing the right data archival solution is essential for healthcare organizations to manage their data effectively. By focusing on features like regulatory compliance, easy integration, scalability, security, customizable retention, easy access, and cost-effectiveness, organizations can improve their operations while ensuring that important data remains secure and accessible. A good data archival strategy helps healthcare providers maintain compliance, streamline their processes, and improve patient care.
When picking a data archival solution, make sure it fits your organization’s long-term needs for security, performance, and cost savings. With the right solution, you can manage healthcare data with confidence, ensuring it stays secure, accessible, and cost-effective for years to come.