eCW Archiving Solutions

There comes a time for every healthcare organization when it decides to move on from its existing EHR software. If your organization has reached this point with eCW you may be looking for options to migrate your health data. If eCW is no longer your primary EHR, but it stores legacy data, you may also be looking for options to decommission your legacy eCW system. Our team has decades of experience working with healthcare organizations to convert and archive their healthcare data as well as a decade of experience specifically working with eCW data. We want to make this transition as easy on you as possible ⸺ without interruptions to patient care.

eCW Archiving Solutions from Two Point

Today, we will discuss our eCW archiving solutions to provide you with a better understanding of how we can help you manage your data. We will also discuss how to prepare for an eCW archive, what we recommend they include, and other important considerations.

What is eClinicalWorks?

To begin, let’s first review what is eClinicalWorks (eCW)? Founded in 1999, eClinicalWorks is a comprehensive, cloud-based EHR software system. In fact, it is the largest cloud-based EHR software in the United States. The software provides a complete EHR solution for practices of all sizes, from single physicians to large hospitals. eCW offers a number of features and modules, including those for patient records, appointment scheduling, charting and documentation, lab and imaging results, reporting and analytics, and much more.

However, it isn’t the only EHR software healthcare organizations have to choose from, and many are now making the decision to find a different solution for their data.

What is an eClinicalWorks Archive?

Next, let’s discuss what is an eCW archive? In short, an eCW archive is a converted copy of your eClinicalWorks database. With this copy, you can maintain long-term access to your eCW data ⸺ without having to keep the eCW software up and running.

This archival process can be done for multiple reasons, including:

Preparing for software changes.
Addressing data governance concerns.
To comply with federal and state regulations around the retention of patient health information (PHI).
For business continuity purposes, in case your current system goes down or you need to reference historical data.
To avoid vendor lock-in and ensure you have control over your data.
To avoid potential security risks that come with maintaining old server data on a legacy system

Not to mention, when you archive your legacy eCW data, it allows your organization to cancel ongoing support or access with eCW. In turn, this can save your organization thousands of dollars each year for the lifetime of your data retention requirement.

How to prepare for an eClinicalWorks archive

As we mentioned, we have been helping our clients preserve their eCW data for decades, and over that time, we’ve come up with a helpful list for how to prepare for your own eClinicalWork archive to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible.

This list includes:

When possible, move to a read-only version of eCW if you are not also migrating your eCW data to a new system. Selecting the right backup/archival option for your organization’s needs is essential. We will discuss additional options with you during your discovery session.
Ensure all of your providers have finished locking and finalizing their encounters⸺only locked encounters can be extracted from your eCW system as they are considered to be the final medical record.
If you host the database, you will need to reach out to your eCW vendor to decrypt the Progress Notes tables before beginning the archival process.
To ensure a successful archive, your organization should provision a Windows (virtual) server to convert/archive data and host the web server along with a database (e.g. MySQL, SQL server) to load the data archive. The web server and database can be hosted separately.
Determine if your organization wants a Windows Active Directory/LDAP authentication.

What to include in your eCW archive

Next, let’s discuss what you should include in your eCW archive.

To begin, our interface provides you with:

Patient search
Patient list matching specified search criteria
Screen to choose from patient demographic summary, existing patient documents, diagnostic imaging and lab orders and results, and locked encounter progress notes
Ability to download (to PDF) the patient demographic summary, existing documents, diagnostic imaging, lab results, and locked encounter progress notes

Additionally, information that we recommend including in your archive includes:

Patient and provider information
Patient demographics, immunizations, referrals, and medical history written to a PDF summary per patient
Locked encounter progress notes. This is a summary of each locked encounter, based on the eCW Progress Notes that will be written to PDFs. No unlocked progress notes will be included in the archive
Existing patient documents and images in eCW
Diagnostic imaging and lab orders written in a PDF summary per patient encounter
Conversion of eCW diagnostic imaging and lab result XML reports to PDFs attached at the patient encounter level

Why Choose Two Point for Your eCW Archiving Solutions

We understand that the decision to undergo any EHR archival process is a big one. Here at Two Point, we have a decade of experience helping our clients with eCW archiving – and we’re confident we can help you too.

When you partner with us for your eCW archiving needs, you can expect the following:

A comprehensive discovery session to ensure we understand your specific needs and requirements.
Dedicated hands-on support throughout the entire process.
A flexible solution for your organization’s needs that also meets all federal and state regulations around the retention of PHI.
A coordinated and efficient eCW archival process from start to finish.

Contact Two Point today to get started on your eCW archival journey!

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eCW Archiving Solutions