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Success Story
Seamless Clinical Data Archiving to De-Risk & Accelerate Epic Transformation
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Success Story Snapshot
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Health Choice Network (HCN) partnered with ELLKAY to streamline its large-scale Epic migration by replacing costly, complex legacy systems with a single, integrated clinical data archive. By enabling seamless, Epic-native access to historical patient records, HCN reduced risk and cost while improving clinician workflows and accelerating adoption across its nationwide network.
Organization Overview
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Partner Profile
Health Choice Network (HCN) is a nationwide collaboration supporting community health centers with technology, business services, and an Epic-powered EHR model designed specifically for FQHCs.
Reach
Health Choice Network (HCN) supports a nationwide network of 93 safety-net organizations across 20 states and Puerto Rico, supporting around 12 million patient visits.
40+
legacy EHR systems decommissioned
One
unified archive for each center
25
Epic centers using ELLKAY archiving
The Challenge
Managing the Weight of Legacy Systems
As HCN began migrating health centers to Epic Powered by HCN, the data was housed in numerous legacy systems—including eClinicalWorks, NextGen, Greenway, Dentrix, and others. Keeping those legacy systems live solely for historical access created several challenges:
- Significant ongoing cost with no clinical value, as legacy systems were maintained purely for infrequent access
- Complexity for clinicians, who would need to leave Epic to find old records
- Risk and confusion around multiple sources of truth
- Regulatory and legal retention requirements, even when clinical relevance had passed
HCN needed a solution that preserved required data, reduced cost and risk, and fit seamlessly into Epic without adding burden or complexity for clinicians.
“We knew providers rarely go back to legacy data after six months of archiving it. But legally, we still needed a complete patient record available if it was ever requested.”
Maylee Sanchez
CIO
'The Solution
One Patient, One Account, One Experience
ELLKAY partnered with HCN to deliver a fully integrated clinical data archiving solution that’s accessible directly within Epic’s native workflow, with no additional logins or system switching required.
Through Epic single sign-on (SSO) and API-based integration, clinicians can access archived records without leaving their workflow. Historical data from dozens of disparate systems—including clinical, dental, and behavioral health platforms—was normalized and standardized into a single archive experience. This approach enabled faster Epic adoption by removing dependency on legacy systems during and after go-live.
“Once our users have to leave Epic, we fail,” said Farren Hurwitz, Director of Strategic Partnerships, HCN. “ELLKAY keeps everyone in Epic, with one patient, one account, and one experience.”
ELLKAY also worked closely with HCN’s governance model, recognizing the financial constraints of community health centers. Flexible pricing structures were introduced to allow costs to decrease over time as data volumes shrink, a feature HCN described as highly valuable.
“We don’t see ELLKAY as a vendor—we see them as a partner. They understand our structure, our constraints, and the realities our community health centers face.”
– Farren Hurwitz, Director, Strategic Partnerships, HCN
The ELLKAY Effect
A Partner HCN Can Count On
HCN consistently refers to ELLKAY as a partner, not a vendor. From implementation through ongoing support, ELLKAY has remained deeply engaged with HCN and its health centers: conducting demos, supporting new waves of Epic go-lives, and working directly with centers when needed.
“There are very few partners I feel 100% comfortable handing directly to our health centers,” said Hurwitz. “With ELLKAY, I never worry—they always represent HCN well.”
HCN also highlighted ELLKAY’s consistency over time, which they note as a rarity among long-term technology partners. “ELLKAY does what they say they’re going to do,” Sanchez added. “That consistency matters to us.”
The Impact
Simplifying the Past, Strengthening the Future
By eliminating dependence on costly legacy systems, HCN created a more streamlined approach to preserving and accessing historical patient data. ELLKAY’s integrated archive keeps complete records readily available while supporting compliance, clinician workflows, and continued Epic adoption.
Decommissioned Legacy Systems
Retired more than 40 legacy EHR systems across diverse platforms and data formats.
Strengthened Compliance
Maintained complete, audit-ready patient records while reducing reliance on legacy systems.
Reduced Legacy System Costs
Eliminated ongoing licensing, infrastructure, and support expenses associated with maintaining legacy systems.
Preserved Clinical Workflows
Enabled seamless access to historical records without disrupting clinician workflows or Epic adoption.
Standardized Historical Data
Consolidated fragmented TIFFs, JPEGs, PDFs, and other formats into a single, searchable archive.
Expanded Archive Adoption
Supports 25 of HCN’s 29 Epic-enabled health centers with integrated clinical data archiving.
