MEDITECH
Data Archiving
product brief

MEDITECH's Data Archiving application for the MAGIC Release of its Health Care Information System (HCIS) is a cost-effective system for the permanent storage of computer-generated reports and scanned documents. Clinical and financial information, formerly stored on paper or microfiche, appears on-line, available to multiple users at one time. With Data Archiving, health care organizations store important records and provide clinical, administrative, and financial personnel with access to archived information whenever and wherever they need it.

Highlights:
• Allows for the storage, retrieval, viewing, and printing of historical reports
• Captures information from paper-based forms using document imaging
• Saves space (reports are typically only 5-10 KB/page) by storing only a print image of the report
• Reduces storage space, personnel needs, and expenses associated with paper and microfiche archival files
• Works with each application's purge features to control size of live databases
• Protects against data loss by ensuring archive is successful before purge is initiated.

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 Personnel/Human Resources scan employee application forms, making them available on-line.

Standard Features

Storing Archived Reports
Records are automatically transferred from MEDITECH's HCIS directly to the Data Archiving application. Automatic data transfer captures information at user-defined intervals, with virtually no manual involvement. Archived records can be retrieved and viewed on a standard workstation or PC.

Information from paper records is scanned on an optical-scanner. The resulting document image is transferred to the storage system, where it can be viewed concurrently by multiple users, from both on-site and remote locations. An index of archived reports is kept in the original applications.

Archiving Process
Users automate the archiving process by setting routines and parameters to determine when data is to be archived. In the HCIS applications, only files that meet the user-defined, application-specific criteria for purging may be archived. These criteria are based on factors such as:
• File age
• Completion or cancellation of order
• Transfer of record to a separate, superceding application
• Zero balances (financial applications)
• Prolonged absence of account activity.

Depending upon the application, files that meet the user-defined criteria for purging are either flagged within the application or are removed from the regular application index to a purge routine. Data Archiving searches for the flags and purge indices, locates the designated files, and then archives the information. Indices of archived data are retained directly in the associated application and are available to authorized users.

Document Archiving
The document archiving capability within Data Archiving enables users to store images of documents that are not associated with patients, such as those from the:
• Personnel department
• Business office
• General accounting office
• Plant operations.

Users have the ability to associate scanned document images with user-definable categories. These scanned images may later be recalled under each category and displayed on-line.

Data Storage
The images created by Data Archiving will be stored on either the magnetic or optical storage systems provided by MEDITECH's hardware partners.

The manner of storage is application-specific. Many applications, including Nursing, Order Entry, and Laboratory, store the files according to the patients' account numbers. Some other examples of how application data is indexed once it is archived include:
• Billing/Accounts Receivable: purge compile number, account name, account number
• Payroll/Personnel: Social Security number of employee, pay date
• General Ledger: batch date, journal, batch number
• Accounts Payable: vendor name, vendor mnemonic, invoice number
• Materials Management: status, Purchase Order number
• Radiology: sign date of report, patient's internal MRI number
• Pharmacy: discharge date, patient name
• Departmental: report activity date, account number.

Purging
Data Archiving does not, on its own, purge files for other applications. Each application retains its own timetables and background jobs for archiving and identifying files to be purged. Purging data takes place automatically when the system confirms successful archiving of the reports.
• Archiving and purging are done in two distinct steps
• Users cannot modify data that was archived but not yet purged
• If a problem occurs during archiving, a failure message is sent to the system monitor, preventing the final purge of live data

Secure Archived Reports
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).

Users have the option to either print the archived record or display it on a PC workstation. An index of archived reports is stored directly in the original application, and archived reports are viewed and printed in the same format as their original applications.

For more information about us, contact a MEDITECH Marketing Representative

MEDITECH
Medical Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com