Spurred by the need to address new healthcare requirements such as ICD-10 or digital imaging compliance, many health care organizations are upgrading their legacy systems. Although many clinics and health care organizations are upgrading their legacy systems to EHRs, too often they’re overlooking the adjacent systems, such as picture archiving and communication systems, that create data for the EHR. This leads to misalignment between the two systems due to the inability to realize the system’s full potential or because workflows are hindered by the lack of interoperability.

From streamlining workflows to automating many manual processes, there are several benefits that upgrading a legacy system offers for an organization. However, transitioning to a new system is a complex process that requires a detailed strategy. This ensures the upgrade progresses smoothly and organizations can get back to work as quickly as possible.

Since updating a system is a major investment, the push to implement newer technology with more robust features requires IT staff to take a nuanced and strategic approach before, during and after the integration process.

What is a Legacy System?

In the health care sector, any older clinical technology system that no longer meets the needs of the organization that could be replaced is referred to as a legacy system. Sometimes this might be an obsolete operating system or the hardware platform, such as Tandem or a mainframe, Learn Health Tech noted.

There are several reasons why organizations might need to upgrade their systems, including health care providers seeking more advanced capabilities or a hospital merger forcing one company to align its system with its new partner. Regardless of the impetus for the upgrade, it’s imperative that organizations effectively manage this transition.

The main obstacle that inhibits organizations from beginning a legacy system upgrade is the cost of implementation, including any potential downtime. Although replacing a current system requires an initial investment, maintaining an outdated and inefficient legacy system leads to even greater lost opportunity costs.

Developing a Sound Strategy

Before the new system is launched, organizations should develop a plan for converting EHR data to the new system. This plan should be communicated with all stakeholders to manage expectations and ensure all departments and individuals are thoroughly prepared for the undertaking.

As noted by EHR Intelligence, there are three main components to consider during a legacy system update. These include:

Electronic data conversion – Moving information from the previous system to the new system is important. However, some legacy data, such as non-HL7 data, isn’t necessarily good for a conversion as this can be a costly process. Before conversion begins, it’s helpful to pinpoint precisely which data absolutely needs to transferred since it can be too expensive to transition every last bit of information.

Manual data abstraction – This process should be started before the new system has been implemented. Although many clinicians might want more information converted than is feasible, it’s crucial that an agreed-upon standard set of data be abstracted across entire organization.

Legacy data archiving – It’s important to keep the legacy data archived in case it’s needed at some point in the future. Consider archiving this information in a common spot that allows clinicians access to the data and potentially eliminate maintenance and support fees.

It’s important to review what features are available with the new system, such as mammography handling for a Picture Archiving and Communications System, that aren’t offered by competitors.

Click here for more information on the benefits to upgrading a picture archive and communications systems.