Seamless Transition: How IKS Migrate Simplifies EHR Migration
As healthcare business needs evolve, migration of electronic health record (EHR) data is an area with critical and important processes surrounding it. In this blog, we’ll explore challenges and opportunities with EHR data migration, and the importance of working with a knowledgeable and experienced partner to create a seamless transition. In particular, it’s paramount that unstructured data such as clinician dictations, progress notes, radiology reports, and scanned documents can be turned into structured data, with actionable fields for demographics, medication lists, lab results, and billing.
EHR Growth and Modernization
While the EHR segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.55% through 2030, more modest than the total U.S. digital health market, projected to surpass $248 billion by 2034 at a CAGR of 11.64%, it remains a cornerstone of healthcare’s infrastructure. Continued investments in EHR modernization are focused on improving interoperability, enhancing clinical decision-making, safeguarding patient data, and driving cost efficiencies.
However, EHR modernization comes with significant risks particularly during data migration, which is often required to replace legacy systems, centralize records, or integrate data post merger or acquisition. According to Gartner, 83% of data migration initiatives either fail or exceed budget and timelines, largely due to the complexities of transferring data accurately and securely. In today’s landscape, data quality is no longer just a purely technical consideration, it’s a strategic imperative.
Clinical Workflow Disruption Due to Poor Data Quality
In order to provide safe, effective, coordinated care, data integrity is essential. There are serious clinical and operational concerns associated with poor data quality, such as:
Data loss
Incomplete or inaccurate data puts patient safety at risk by delaying treatments, resulting in incorrect diagnoses, and causing medication errors.
Data corruption
Disjointed patient management results from fragmented records that interfere with provider communication and care coordination.
Data duplication
Conflicting patient profiles increase the possibility of errors and results in wasted resources.
Financially speaking, inadequate data quality can lead to missing reimbursements possibilities, problems in billing and coding, and risks related to regulatory compliance. Clinical decision-making, operational effectiveness, and trust within the healthcare ecosystem are all negatively impacted by data that lacks integrity.
Quality-First Approach to Data Migration
Successful EHR migration begins with a clear understanding of the existing data landscape. Instead of treating data quality as a post-migration clean-up chore, a quality-first approach places a higher priority on the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of data before, during, and after the migration process. This proactive strategy is critical for creating a single source of truth and preserving the integrity of clinical and operational data, minimizing risks to patient safety, compliance, and usability.
By defining the links, structure, and flow of data pieces, data mapping helps in early detection of gaps, redundancies, and inconsistencies, allowing for prompt remedial actions. Additionally, data cleansing reduces the possibility of downstream errors by ensuring that only accurate, relevant, and usable information is transferred. Data prioritizing is equally critical in cases when early and accurate migration of high-value clinical data such as patient demographics, medication history, allergies, problem lists, lab results, and imaging reports is necessary for diagnosis, treatment, and patient safety. To reduce complexities, lower-priority or archival data can be moved later, securely archived, or converted into reference formats.
To guarantee accuracy, reliability, and suitability of usage, data quality is evaluated across multiple dimensions:
- Completeness: Have all necessary data been captured?
- Correctness: Does the data fairly reflect real-world values?
- Concordance: Is there consistency among systems?
- Currency: Is the data up-to-date and relevant?
- Plausibility: Does it fit within the anticipated clinical or operational ranges?
- Conformance: Does it adhere to standards and formats?
- Bias: Could results be distorted by systematic errors?
Together these attributes determine the trustworthiness of data for analysis and decision making.
IKS Migrate: A New Standard
The healthcare industry is generating data at an unprecedented pace, with volumes expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 36% by 2025, surpassing all other sectors. This surge spans patient records, lab results, imaging, and insurance claims, offering immense potential for improving care. However, nearly 80% of this data is unstructured, embedded in clinical notes, imaging reports, and physician narratives, and containing valuable insights into patient histories, symptoms, and clinical contexts. Without effective extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) into usable formats, the information risks being overlooked or misinterpreted.
IKS Migrate is purpose-built to meet this challenge head-on. Unlike traditional ETL, IKS MIgrate takes a quality-first, clinician-led approach, offering an intelligent migration solution that transforms raw, unstructured data into structured, actionable information that is ready to support frontline care from day one. The solution brings together clinical, coding, documentation and technical expertise to ensure that each data element is accurate, complete, and contextually relevant. With over 95% of data clinically validated at go-live, and with 99.5% accuracy, it empowers care teams to make confident, informed decisions without disruption.
IKS Migrate also provides custom data mapping to ensure no critical data is lost. Unstructured data is systematically converted into structured EHR fields, giving clinicians immediate access to usable format on day one.
By reducing administrative burden, minimizing manual data cleanup, and ensuring clinical readiness, IKS Migrate lowers transition costs and accelerates time to value. It delivers the expertise, structure, and clinical precision needed to turn vast volumes of data into a strategic advantage.
Contact us to learn how IKS Migrate can help enable smart transitions and stronger outcomes.
