Moving to a new electronic health record (EHR) system is one of the most demanding projects a healthcare organization can take on. For many clinical staff tasked with spearheading data migration, it means balancing patient care, IT complexity, and compliance requirements — often while learning what’s needed as they go.

Whether you’re at the beginning stages of an EHR migration or you’ve already started implementation, your project’s success depends on careful planning and oversight. In this guide, we’ll highlight some of the most common pitfalls healthcare providers face during EHR data migration and how to avoid them so you can protect your operations and the patient experience.

Why EHR Data Migration Is So Challenging

Balancing the speed, accuracy, and compliance demands needed for a successful EHR data migration project is no small order.

Transitioning patient data — a process known as medical data abstraction — involves securely and accurately transferring records from one system to another. And with each record holding sensitive, regulated information, a single error can result in compliance violations or disruptions to patient care. On top of that, clinical staff often juggle their regular workloads while contributing to migration tasks, which may lead to burnout and missed deadlines.

Without the right expertise, teams quickly realize that what began as a technical project is actually a full-scale organizational change initiative that requires specialized support.

Watch Out for These 5 Data Migration Pitfalls

Let’s review some of the most common pitfalls that throw EHR data migration projects off track — and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Inadequate Planning and Governance

Many data migrations fail before they start because there’s no clear plan in place. Without setting up project goals, timelines, and oversight, it’s easy for teams to lose focus or miss deadlines.

Establishing a governance committee early — ideally a mix of your clinical leader(s), IT professionals, and a medical data abstraction provider — helps you set clear expectations from the beginning. When everyone understands the project scope and how to measure its successes, you prevent delays or cost overruns.

2. Underestimating the Data Challenge

Patient records tend to exist in multiple formats, with inconsistent terminology or documentation habits among providers and facilities. Failing to account for these inconsistencies can result in issues that create even bigger challenges once your new system is live, including data loss, duplication, or inaccuracies.

The best approach for avoiding this pitfall is to assess the complexity of your legacy data upfront. Prior to starting data migration, take time to determine what you’ll need to move, what can be archived, and what will require manual abstraction. This task is quite a lift for an internal team member, so it’s helpful to hand it off to a professional abstraction provider.

3. Ignoring Security and Compliance Risks

Security steps sometimes fall by the wayside in the rush to meet go-live deadlines. However, every patient record handled during migration must stay protected and compliant with HIPAA and other
regulations.

You can reduce security and noncompliance risks by conducting risk assessments, encrypting data during transfer, and maintaining detailed chain-of-custody documentation.

4. Overburdening Clinical Staff

Many healthcare organizations rely on clinicians or nurses with IT experience to manage migration tasks in addition to their daily responsibilities. While insight from these teams is invaluable, this approach can quickly lead to burnout, missed deadlines, and errors that threaten data integrity.

Bringing in external data abstraction experts can alleviate pressure on your staff and maintain quality control over the project, ensuring it progresses efficiently without compromising the level of care your patients deserve.

5. Failing to Test and Validate

Assuming that all the data has migrated correctly can lead to major issues once your teams begin using the new system.

Make sure to perform testing in stages, with clinicians confirming patient records are accurate and accessible where they’re needed. You might also consider implementing continuous quality assurance and side-by-side comparisons between old and new systems to ensure any potential problems are caught early and resolved before go-live.

When to Consider an External Abstraction Partner

A primary way to avoid all the pitfalls above is to resist stretching your internal teams thin and opt for an abstraction partner. The right partner doesn’t replace your internal team — they strengthen it by providing:

• Specialized knowledge in data migration methodologies and healthcare compliance
• Accurate, efficient abstraction performed by experts with medical backgrounds
• Reduced burden on your clinical teams, so they can stay focused on patient care

Ultimately, partnering with an experienced data abstraction partner preserves both the clinician and patient experience.

Want a clear picture of your organization’s data migration readiness? Book a free assessment of your EHR migration strategy with GuideIT today. Our abstraction experts will review your migration plan and data environment and provide personalized recommendations for a faster, safer, and more efficient EHR transition.