Sorting patient health information can be a nightmare if you’re a service provider in the US. You have to operate with various medical services and insurance types. You also need to interact with a large number of third-party services, and external data providers, as well as comply with all the complex regulations of the industry.
The more data your platform works with, the more opportunities you have. However, this also means exposure to risks. Dirty data (records containing errors) costs the US healthcare industry over $300 billion annually. Thus, avoiding financial losses associated with inaccurate data is one of the top business priorities for healthcare organizations.
Automating as many procedures as possible becomes crucial for delivering high-quality services and up-to-date information. An effective way of automating human-managed actions and reducing errors is through integrated applications, such as PointClickCare technologies. This approach also facilitates seamless sharing of your largest EHR database with other service providers in the industry.
PointClickCare (PCC) is one of the main data providers in the US Healthcare System. To integrate your platform with PCC, you can visit the PointClickcare Marketplace and choose one of the solutions proposed by PCC partners. If there is no suitable solution, you can develop your own integration using a suite of top-tier PointClickCare technologies. This article describes the main features and benefits of the PointClickCare EHR integration.
What is PointClickCare?
PointClickCare (PCC) is the most widely used cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) platform for the Long-Term and Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) market. The software solution has access to more than 60% of all US patient data.
PCC proposes solutions for the following healthcare industry areas: skilled nursing, senior living, home health care, acute care, CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Communities), long-term care pharmacy, and any other nurse call system. You might also need a system integration with PointClickCare API if your application, CRM, or other product works with facilities that track their patient EHR via PointClickCare’s API.
A Complete Guide to PointClickCare Integration Process
Here is the process to follow if you want to integrate your platform with PointClickCare
- Data relay initiation
- Data relay processing
- Data analysis and reports generation
Let’s take a closer look at how to integrate with PointClickCare API
Stage 1 – Data relay initiation
PCC data relay initiation includes the following steps:
1.1. The client submits a Letter of Authorization to PCC naming the authorized party regarding the data relay.
1.2. PCC assigns a PMO (Project Management Office) and a Project Number.
1.3. The PCC data source sends credentials to access a particular database (DB) on the SFTP server: login and password. The client shares this information with the database administration group.
Stage 2 – Data relay processing
Data relay processing is the heart of PointClickCare API integration and includes the following processes:
- Preliminary actions
- Taking data
- Restoring data
- Giving data
2.1. Preliminary actions
Before the data relay processing, the following one-time actions are required:
2.1.1. Get the PCC access credentials – a result of the data relay initiation step.
2.1.2. Go to the PCC website and enter the DB access credentials.
2.1.3. Browse source database. Note: Each DB folder on SFTP contains two folders: full backup and logs.
2.1.4. Create a similar database structure on the client side – on the client PCC server.
2.1.5. Apply the first (initial) full backup.
2.1.6. Transfer information about a new DB setup to a Customer Relationship Manager – for Master Data creation.
2.2. Taking data
During the data-taking process, the client-server takes PCC data from two external sources: the Internet – PCC SFTP and Internal SFTP.
Data taking process includes two stages:
2.2.1. Initial upload – when the client-server uploads PCC databases for the first time.
2.2.2. Further updates – when the server uploads the changelog for each PCC database. After the initial database upload, the client-server further uses the log shipping technology:
2.2.3. Receives only changelog – only DB changes, not the whole database.
2.2.4. Restores data – applies changes to the existing database.
2.3. Restoring data
After taking data from SFTP, the server performs database refreshment – and applies data changes to each of the existing PCC databases.
Note: During the database restore (refreshment) process, the database is not available for reading. So, data restoration must be as quick as possible for any PointClickCare integration for providers to be successful.
2.4. Giving data
The client-server gives data to other servers when requested.
Fig.1. PCC client-server flow:
- 1 – Take PCC databases and changelog from SFTP sources,
- 2 – Store and restore PCC databases,
- 3 – Give PCC data on demand.
Stage 3 – Data analysis and report generation
Business Intelligence groups take the results of the data relay processing stage and use them for reporting purposes – depending on the client’s demands. The reporting groups’ output can be the following:
- Data Analytics
- Customized reports
- Predictive analysis and modeling
How is PointClickCare Integration Beneficial?
Integration with PointClickcCare’s EHR platform allows patients’ up-to-date information to be automatically synchronized between your application and the PointClickCare database. Such synchronization provides the following benefits for the business:
- Reduce manual data entry of medical documentation.
- Eliminate possible human errors in EMR.
- Allow the healthcare staff to focus more on their direct responsibilities and patients’ needs rather than on bureaucratic procedures.
- Reduce the administrative load associated with clinical documentation.
- Improve your healthcare models using data mining and data analysis.
- Improve healthcare outcomes and make predictions on future healthcare trends.
Need help with PointClickCare integration?
Contact Langate todayLangate’s Successful Case with PointClickCare Integration
Langate provides an ETL-type integration with the PCC source. ETL (extract, transform, load) is a data integration type that includes data extraction, transformation, and loading. During the integration process, the client servers take (extract) data from the PCC source system, transform it for further analysis, and give (load) the transformed data on demand.
Our integration flow follows the PointClickCare integration process described above which includes the following steps:
Data relay initiation → data relay processing → data analysis and reports generation.
Note: The client-server takes the log shipping file (the changelog) every hour for each database. The more PCC databases on the server, the longer it takes to upload the PCC source data.
The DB refreshment workflow implemented performs the following main operations:
- Checks new DB log updates and applies new logs.
- Mutes DB refreshment while other jobs are performed. A DB is locked for refreshment until data-taking stops.
- Generates email notifications in emergency cases:
- If a job failure occurs: the log chain is broken and there is no log file for more than n hours.
- If logs miss relevant data: when no actual DB refreshment occurs, though no refreshment job errors are detected.
- If there are no new logs for a long time: there are no data updates for more than n hours and the data becomes outdated.
- If any backdating PCC transactions occurred: there is an increase in records updated in the past.
- Cleans up applied logs.
Reasons to Choose Langate’s PointClickCare Integration Services
Here are the features and benefits of integration with PointClickCare:
- Automatic log files download.
- Automatic files restore (refreshment).
- Correct log file ordering, data relevance, and integrity.
- Locking the file refreshment process for long reading processes.
- Unlocking refreshment threads for hung-up or crashed processes.
- Automatic email notifications for emergency cases.
- Forwarding logs to the third-party counterparts.
- Ability to operate with any number of client servers and data consumers.
- Simple configuration and management.
Concluding Remarks
Langate is your innovative partner for integration with PointClickCare electronic health record platform. We have over two decades of experience in the healthcare industry, numerous middle- and senior-level software engineers as well as analysts who’d be able to profoundly analyze your business needs and offer the best-fitting technological solution. We are the technology partners you can count on–call us today!
