Data Storage and Archiving

MEDITECH structures its data storage and archiving capabilities to ensure users always have fast, easy, and reliable access to information and secure storage of information. MEDITECH offers health care organizations a wide range of products that assist in creating the most efficient system for data storage and archiving.

MEDITECH offers powerful Data Archiving capabilities that allow customers to incorporate data normally contained on paper (such as patient consent forms) into electronic patient records. Data Archiving stores patient-specific information and includes the ability to scan and associate documents with specific patients.

Additionally, Data Archiving includes a "document archiving" capability. This enables health care organizations to store images of documents not associated with patients. For example, departments such as Human Resources can scan employee application forms into the system, making them available on-line.

Purge options and time frames for information stored in MEDITECH's system are hospital-defined. Because these purges are performed in the background, they do not require system downtime.

The Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) sends image status and availability information back to the Enterprise Medical Record (EMR), but the EMR does not actually store images. Instead, the EMR is image-enabled, pointing users directly to images maintained on the PACS storage system which is designed for archiving.

MEDITECH works with industry-leading hardware manufacturers Compaq, Dell, EMC, IBM, Valco, and Blue Chip Technologies to provide the top of the line equipment for information storing. The products utilized by MEDITECH include the latest models of high-end storage solutions such as the Compaq Storage Works 8000, the Dell PowerVault™, EMC Symmetrix system, and various IBM Storage products.

Clinical information from throughout the enterprise is stored chronologically by patient in an Enterprise Medical Record enabling caregivers to find essential information from a single place. Complete visit histories are electronically stored for each patient over the course of an entire lifetime.

MEDITECH provides a separate Data Repository with a SQL database so users can perform database analysis without impacting their live environment. The Data Repository uses a database structure well-suited to this purpose.

The MEDITECH Data Repository product is considered an integral component in a facility's long-term storage solution. The Data Repository product was designed to be a SQL database of information from MEDITECH's transactional systems.

Reports are automatically archived for secure storage. Since only a print image of the archived report is stored, the data contained within it can neither be altered nor used to re-create data from the original application. The one exception to this rule occurs within MEDITECH's Billing/Accounts Receivable application where archived data can be used to re-create data in future reports (i.e., data from an archived quarterly report can be used to create an annual report).