King’s Daughters Medical Center (KDMC) in Mississippi has achieved a significant milestone with the successful implementation of HealthStore®, an independent clinical data repository (CDR) developed by BridgeHead Software. This endeavor involved the decommissioning of the facility’s legacy Electronic Health Record (EHR) system and the migration of more than two decades’ worth of patient data.
KDMC, a 60-bed medical facility serving patients from a five-county region, joined forces with BridgeHead Software, renowned experts in healthcare application retirement, to lead this transformative project.
The retirement of KDMC’s legacy EHR solution, MEDITECH Magic, included the migration of nearly 700,000 patient records to HealthStore during a six-month implementation program. HealthStore serves as a unified repository that consolidates, stores, and safeguards patient data, empowering clinicians to access and retrieve vital patient information seamlessly at the point of care.
Kevin Kimble, Data Systems Specialist at KDMC, expressed confidence in their choice, stating, “We wanted to work with a team with concrete experience in retiring legacy data applications. BridgeHead provides peace of mind, not only knowing that you can show and teach staff how to use HealthStore and feel confident that they will pick it up easily, but the reassurance that everything they need is at their fingertips. I also wanted to ensure the protection of the legacy EHR data and felt very comfortable with the security capabilities that HealthStore provides,”
Continuing to operate legacy systems can strain the resources of healthcare organisations, in terms of time, personnel, and finances. Legacy solutions also pose a growing security risk and become increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks over time. Transitioning to HealthStore has not only enhanced data protection but has also resulted in cost savings related to system maintenance, licensing, server hosting, power, cooling, and more. By retiring the MEDITECH MAGIC system, KDMC was able to decommission all associated equipment used to run the legacy EHR.
Moreover, HealthStore has streamlined operational procedures, enabling both clinical and non-clinical staff to securely access historical and current data with speed and ease. The platform’s intuitive timeline functionality provides a comprehensive view of a patient’s history, displaying the corresponding number of documents for each patient by month and year, whether they are clinical, financial, or administrative.
Jim Beagle, President and CEO at BridgeHead Software, highlighted the significance of KDMC’s achievement, stating, “When healthcare organisations recognise their legacy EHR systems are no longer delivering sufficient value to justify their continued support and maintenance, it’s time to explore how best to decommission those applications – and KDMC is a prime example of how to embark on an effective application retirement project. Not only has KDMC saved precious time and money on supporting an out-of-date system, it has provided the workforce with the right tools to access valuable legacy data quickly, easily, and securely, to ultimately support improved patient care.”
