One Downtime Solution, Any EHR
One of the most common questions healthcare organizations ask before evaluating a downtime solution is: will it work with our EHR? It’s a fair question, and for many IT teams, EHR compatibility is the deciding factor in whether a downtime project moves forward or gets shelved.
The answer for dbtech is clear: the platform is designed to integrate with any EHR system, including Epic, Oracle Health (Cerner), MEDITECH, Allscripts, athenahealth, and others. How dbtech Integrates With Any EHR to Provide a Reliable Backup System covers the universal integration architecture. This blog goes deeper into what those integrations look like for the three most widely deployed EHR platforms in the U.S.
How EHR Integration Works: The Foundation
dbtech’s downtime solution is built around a core integration mechanism: HL7 messaging. HL7 (Health Level 7) is the universal data exchange standard in healthcare, and virtually every major EHR system supports it. This is the foundation of dbtech’s EHR-agnostic architecture.
When an HL7 feed is established between the EHR and dbtech’s downtime platform, patient data, including ADT events (admissions, discharges, transfers), patient demographics, encounter information, and clinical data points, is continuously synchronized to the downtime workstations. This creates an offline-accessible snapshot of patient data that remains current even when the primary EHR is unavailable.
Critically, this data is stored locally on the downtime workstations in a way that does not require any internet connection to access. This means the solution works during network downtime as well as EHR downtime. See FAQ Friday: Can the Downtime Solution Work Offline Without Any Internet Connection? for details.
Epic Integration
Epic is the most widely deployed EHR in the United States, serving the majority of large academic medical centers and major health systems. dbtech’s Epic integration is one of its most mature and widely deployed.
How it works: dbtech integrates with Epic via HL7 ADT feeds, which Epic generates natively and can be configured to route to external systems through the hospital’s existing interface engine. The integration captures patient demographic data, encounter information, and ADT event history in near real time.
For organizations using Epic’s native downtime capabilities (Epic Rover, Epic Haiku), dbtech provides a complementary layer of protection that extends beyond what Epic’s built-in tools offer:
- dbtech operates on independent, locally-installed hardware, it does not rely on Epic’s cloud infrastructure, which means it remains available even when Epic’s cloud or hosting environment is affected
- dbtech workstations can be deployed at every nursing station, ED bay, registration desk, and ancillary department, not just on mobile devices
- The platform provides forms and workflow tools that Epic’s native downtime mode does not replicate
Learn more in How dbtech Integrates with Epic EHR to Extend Downtime Protection.
Oracle Health (Cerner) Integration
Oracle Health, formerly Cerner, serves hundreds of hospitals across the United States and internationally, with particularly strong penetration in community hospitals and government health systems including VA facilities.
How it works: dbtech integrates with Cerner via HL7 ADT messaging, and receives messages through the existing interface engine. Configuration involves establishing the outbound ADT feed from Cerner to dbtech’s integration engine, which processes the data and distributes it to the downtime workstation network.
A key consideration for Cerner organizations is the Oracle Health cloud migration. As Cerner facilities transition to Oracle Health’s cloud-hosted infrastructure, the nature of outage risk is changing, from on-premises server failures to cloud availability events and network connectivity dependencies. dbtech’s offline workstation model provides protection regardless of whether the outage is on-premises or cloud-side.
For a full overview of the Cerner integration architecture, see How dbtech Integrates with Cerner EHR.
MEDITECH Integration
MEDITECH is the dominant EHR in community hospitals, critical access hospitals, and long-term acute care facilities. dbtech has extensive deployment experience with MEDITECH’s various platform versions, including MEDITECH Expanse, MEDITECH 6.x, and older MAGIC installations.
How it works: MEDITECH’s integration architecture varies by platform version. For MEDITECH Expanse (the current cloud-based platform), dbtech integrates via HL7 ADT feeds via the interface engine, in the same manner as Epic and Cerner. For older MEDITECH 6.x and MAGIC installations, dbtech’s integration team works with the organization’s MEDITECH administrators to establish the appropriate data feed.
MEDITECH organizations frequently note that the EHR’s built-in downtime mode is limited, it provides read-only access to historical data but does not support the full clinical workflow replacement that dbtech offers.
See 7 Reasons Why dbtech Is the Perfect Integration for MEDITECH EHR and How dbtech Downtime Integrates with MEDITECH EHR for a detailed breakdown.
What About Less Common EHR Systems?
Beyond Epic, Cerner, and MEDITECH, dbtech has integration experience with a wide range of EHR platforms including Allscripts, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, and others. The core integration mechanism, HL7 ADT messaging, is supported by virtually every EHR system on the market, which means dbtech can deploy in virtually any environment.
For organizations using niche or legacy EHR platforms, dbtech’s integration team conducts a technical discovery session to identify the appropriate data feed methodology and confirm compatibility before deployment.
EHR Migration? Downtime Protection Carries Over
One concern organizations frequently raise is whether a downtime solution needs to be replaced when they migrate to a new EHR. With dbtech, the answer is no.
Because the platform is EHR-agnostic at its core, transitioning from one EHR to another involves reconfiguring the HL7 feed to the new system, not replacing the downtime infrastructure. This is particularly relevant for the many healthcare organizations currently migrating from legacy EHR platforms to Epic or Oracle Health. Supporting the Patient Experience During EHR Migration covers how dbtech supports organizations through the transition period, when downtime risk is actually elevated.
The Integration Process: What to Expect
For most EHR integrations, the dbtech implementation process follows a predictable path:
- Technical discovery: dbtech’s integration team reviews your EHR version, data feed capabilities, and network architecture
- HL7 feed configuration: The outbound ADT feed is established and validated in a test environment
- Data validation: Patient data appearing on the downtime workstations is validated against live EHR data to confirm accuracy
- Workstation deployment: Hardware is deployed to clinical and administrative locations
- Go-live: The system enters active production with dbtech support monitoring the integration
For most organizations, this process takes 2–6 weeks depending on EHR complexity and facility size. Request a demo to get a timeline estimate for your specific EHR environment.
EHR Compatibility Shouldn’t Be a Barrier to Downtime Readiness
If EHR compatibility has been holding your organization back from implementing a downtime solution, the barrier is lower than you think. dbtech’s EHR-agnostic integration model means your existing EHR investment is not a constraint, it’s the foundation the downtime solution builds on.
Explore dbtech’s full range of EHR integration resources or contact dbtech to discuss your specific EHR environment.