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Moving from Excel to clinic software: a data migration checklist
When leaving Excel, most data loss happens during clean-up. What to do before you migrate.
Why does Excel only go so far?
The problem isn’t the spreadsheet itself.
Excel works well in a clinic for a long time because it’s flexible: you add any column and fill it however you like. That’s exactly where the problem comes from. Over time, flexibility leads to the same information being written in different ways; one patient’s phone number has a leading zero in one row and none in another.
The second limit is working at the same time. While the file is open for one person, another can’t edit it, or a second copy appears. As copies multiply, which one is current becomes debatable, and at some point two different versions of the truth emerge.
The third is access. Health data is a special category of personal data; you need to limit who sees which row and be able to see when a record was opened. None of this is possible in a spreadsheet file.
Clean up before you migrate
The most time-consuming but most rewarding step of the switch.
Migrating dirty data is nothing more than moving dirty data to a new place. Cleaning up before you migrate is the step that most reduces the time you’ll spend after the switch.
The same patient may have been entered twice with different spellings. They’re merged by checking name and phone together.
Numbers with a leading zero, spaces, parentheses or country codes are brought into one format. Reminder messages depend on this.
Day/month mix-ups are the most common error. Dates of birth and procedure dates should be brought into one format.
Records with empty required fields such as name, surname and contact details are flagged in advance and completed before migration, not during it.
Balance or allergy information written in a “Notes” column should be separated into its own field; otherwise it won’t be searchable in the new system.
What do you move, and what do you leave in the archive?
You don’t have to move everything.
A common mistake is trying to push every record from the last ten years into the new system. That both lengthens the process and crowds the new system from day one. The healthier approach is to move active patients and keep the rest as an archive.
A practical rule: patients who have visited in the last two years count as active, and their files are moved. Older records are kept as a readable archive file; you check it when needed, but it doesn’t slow down daily work.
On the finance side, open balances must be moved. Moving closed past accounts usually isn’t necessary; knowing the total is enough.
How does switch-over day work?
The clinic doesn’t stop, but it needs a cut-off point.
The most critical part of the switch is being clear about which system is valid from which date. If that date is vague, records are kept in two places for a while, and both end up incomplete.
From that day on, all new records are kept only in the new system. No exceptions.
The data migration is repeated one last time right before the cut-off date so that records entered in between aren’t missed.
Twenty randomly selected patient records are compared between the old and new systems. If there’s an error, it’s in the bulk migration too.
The old Excel file isn’t deleted but is locked for editing. That way no one accidentally enters a record there.
In the first days, have one person collect the questions; this is the week to stop everyone from inventing their own method.
What gets lost most?
Most of what’s lost is in people’s heads, not in files.
Technical loss during data migration is rare. What really gets lost is information that was never written down: which patient likes to be called at what time, who postponed which procedure, which patient pays in instalments. That lives in the team’s memory, not in Excel.
The switch is a good opportunity to put this information in writing. If the new system has a patient notes field, this information can be added file by file in the first weeks. Otherwise, when an employee leaves, the knowledge leaves too.
The second most common loss is paper consent forms and X-rays. Documents that aren’t digitized become impossible to find over time. During the switch, it’s recommended to at least attach active patients’ documents to their files.
Is data migration paid?
My Excel file is very messy — can it still be migrated?
Does the clinic close during the switch?
Can I export my data later?
Related pages
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