System migrations are a marvellous opportunity to get your data right and improve operational processes

Local leaders have been told they must draw up plans to level-up EPR provision and converge existing systems in use across Integrated Care System (ICS) boundaries. As NHS England stated, “Our primary focus is to achieve universal EPR coverage across all ICSs…”. The digitisation guidance also encouraged “ICSs to work towards the convergence of EPRs across acute, community, mental health, ambulance services, primary care and social care.”

Enabling smooth system migrations and mergers

This directive will require many organisations to replace their source systems or merge with others – a substantial undertaking!

However, system migrations are a marvellous opportunity to get your data right and improve operational processes.  But all too often data and reporting continuity are promised by the large EPR vendors without any regard for the existing data linkages in place. And when Go Live is initiated the old data feeds simply don’t work.

At Insource, our data management solutions underpin any migration to ensure complete operational and statutory reporting continuity throughout, along with assurance on the accuracy of the data being migrated.  

Insource data management – a vital foundation

Solution benefits:

  • Continuity of statutory reporting
  • Continuity of operational reporting
  • Perform check and balance of data throughout the migration process
  • Identify data migration errors
  • Source system data independence
  • Out-of-the-box functionality for fast implementation
  • Automated data validation and reporting

Managing the risk

System migrations, especially to a new PAS or EPR system, are fraught with risk. All too often trusts adopt new EPRs believing them to be the panacea for all operational and data quality issues and are usually disappointed to find that the PAS/EPR is not the whole story.

In undertaking a PAS/EPR, or other departmental system, migration it is vital to ensure that the quality of the data being migrated is good and consistent.  As well as ensuring the amount of data migrated is sufficient for continuity and consistency of the hospital’s ongoing day-to-day operation.  Flawed strategies associated with data migrations can result in an inability to accurately report on hospital performance, such as RTT position or produce reliable CDS returns, and other statutory and non-statutory returns.

Our Health Data Enterprise (HDE) solution can mitigate these risks. With HDE, trusts can validate data quality and consistency, as well as the ability to report fully post-migration. All of this can be undertaken with data management systems up and running before the ‘go live’ date.  

Ensuring data quality and reporting continuity

HDE automates the collection of data from disparate administrative and departmental clinical systems. It extracts, processes, validates, and consolidates the information into a Unified Data Layer (UDL). 

Trusts can implement the HDE platform to run alongside legacy and new systems in parallel.  Using its ability to output consistent data structures regardless of the source application, direct comparisons can be made between the two systems. This allows trusts to identify any issues with the data migration processes.  Errors and poor-quality data can be highlighted giving the ability to rectify them well in advance of any go live.

Internal reporting and BI analytics outputs can also be validated, providing total confidence that on go live everything will work.

“On day one of go live we were able to make our statutory submissions such as CDS and RTT without disruption or delay”

Helen Nicholls, Head of Information, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust

Out-of-the-box functionality for fast time-to-value

HDE provides a powerful data platform on which to base data management projects within trusts, across Integrated Care Systems or nationally.  Built entirely for healthcare, with thousands of NHS-tested data feeds, the HDE out-of-the-box functionality gives exceptional time-to-value. It delivers rapid individual site configurations and customisation to meet the most exacting requirements, and migration projects.

HDE forms the basis of a range of Insource applications including Patient Pathway Plus, our waiting list management solution, and our data quality, statutory reporting, capacity planning and analytics capabilities.

Our data management platform

HDE enables multiple data sources to be seamlessly joined together into a Unified Data Layer (UDL), giving a single version of the truth.  The UDL, provides an accurate, complete data foundation across the hospital, trust, or Integrated Care System (ICS) for informed decision-making, operational management, and strategic planning.

Our expertise covers trusts in all sectors, both specialist and general, NHS and private, and ensures you have an easily deployable platform that can be configured to meet any local needs and delivered in bite-sized modules to match your project objectives and budget.