1. Vice President of Business Development
From MEDITECH to Data Repository to so many places… Is everything making it through?
Jennifer Fortin
Vice President of Business Development
Blue Elm Company
BOOTH 526

2. Agenda Data Repository:
Reminder of what’s in there
DR as the source for sending/reporting data
Options to compare, validate and correct data in DR
Types of errors and how to troubleshoot
Summary / Questions

3. It’s an extra stop along the way of moving data
Data Repository (DR)
SQL based application
Copy of data generated by the MEDITECH transactional environment
Hierarchical to Relational database
Not bound to MEDITECH purge parameters
Great for long term, statistical reporting – however…
It’s an extra stop along the way of moving data

4. Data repository is the source for:
General reporting
Crystal reports, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)
Business Intelligence / Analytics tools
Meaningful Use Reporting
2011 and 2014 CEHRT Clinical Quality Measures 
90 and 365 day Functional Measures reporting requirements
Pay for Performance (P4P)
BCA
Other third party vendors

5. What are the options to compare data in DR?
NPR and/or Report Designer reports to compare the data
Application reports to compare totals against SQL
SQL Script to see if/when tables are updating
DR to DR
MEDITECH Validation tool
Other Vendor Validation tools

6. Using NPR and/or Report Designer reports to compare
Manual Process
Extract data from MEDITECH
Load data into SQL tables in another database
Run a comparison report between like tables
Finds missing rows and discrepancies in data

7. Application Reports to compare totals against SQL
Manual Process
Run a report within an application (ie, BAR)
Note total records in report
Query the same data in SQL
Compare totals

8. SQL Script Manual Process
Create a Query to check the RowUpdateDateTime
Every DR table contains RowUpdateDateTime
Used to determine the last time a table was updated

9. DR to DR
Using the calculated data in DR to verify the data being used for those calculations in DR
Examples:
Using BAR month end data to verify the transactional data in BAR is complete
Using ADM midnight run stats to determine if any ADM data in DR is missing
Using data in one application to verify another – ie, comparing demo data in ABS, ADM, MRI and BAR

10. MEDITECH and Other Vendor Validation Tools
Things to consider:
Speed
Ability to find discrepancies within ROW and COLUMN data
Ability to conduct 100% sampling
Ability to work with all platforms
Algorithms used to identify discrepancies

11. Reasons for DR errors and how to research/resolve - Transfer, Capture and Timing Issues MEDITECH vs. SQL
MEDITECH APPLICATION SIDE
Programming
Processing
Data

12. Reasons for DR errors -MEDITECH APPLICATION SIDE
Programming issues
User changes data, DR not updated
Financial Example:
Close Day process fails
Call to MEDITECH, programmer identifies corrupt charges from a new 3rd party billing interface
BAR Programmer corrects from MT front end, forces Close Day to complete.
These changes would not be sent to DR!

13. Reasons for DR errors - MEDITECH APPLICATION SIDE
Programming issues
User changes data, DR not updated
Clinical Example:
EDM Tracker Board enhancement released
Uh-oh – during the redesign process the developers weren’t aware of the EDM to DR integration
After receiving the enhancement, many DR EDM tables stopped receiving updates
Initial Loads would be required once the EDM to DR integration pieces were restored

14. How to research programming issues = error log

15. Reasons for dr errors - MEDITECH APPLICATION SIDE
Processing issues
Jobs crash, invalid output produced
File server out of space, networking issues

16. How to research processing issues:
View Transfer job status
Check MIS alerts
Pending Activity viewer

17. Reasons for dr errors - MEDITECH APPLICATION SIDE
Data issues
Data doesn’t meet SQL requirements – won’t be stored correctly
Example:
PP.BANK.transit.number stores bank account routing numbers in payroll (defined by MT as INT type)
SQL integer represents an actual quantity (number) so will remove leading zeros (ie, to 123)
DR will then contain values like 123 and 456 in the PpBank table, TransitNumber column
This will never report as an error/exception!

18. Reasons for DR errors - MEDITECH APPLICATION SIDE
Data issues
Data doesn’t meet SQL reqs – Can’t be stored in DR
Example:
MEDITECH maps a GL NPR element, GL.BATCH.init.date.time as a DATETIME datatype in SQL
User has option of entering valid datetime or “U” for Unknown
GL batch data filed with a valid datetime will be sent to SQL
Data filed as “U” for Unknown will fail to populate the DR SQL table

19. How to research data issues = Error log:

20. HOW TO RESEARCH DATA ISSUES = Exception log:

21. Reasons for dr ERRORS – SQL SIDE
MEDITECH
SQL Server
Hardware

22. Reasons for dr errors - SQL SIDE
MEDITECH side
ODBC library is failing

23. Reasons for dr errors - SQL SIDE
MEDITECH side
DR Manager service is non-operational

24. Reasons for dr errors – SQL side
SQL Server
SQL Server service not running, SQL transaction log full
Locks causing updates to timeout

25. Reasons for dr errors – SQL side
SQL Server
Various SQL Errors

26. Reasons for dr errors – sql side
Hardware issues
Machine is out of resources or crashed

27. How to check DR ERRORS – SQL SIDE
MEDITECH
Is DR Manager service running? MT Background Job daemon?
SQL Server
Monitor SQL
Hardware Issues
Monitor server
Tables
Run SQL queries (RowUpdateDateTime, etc.)

28. Correcting data in DR You found discrepancies! Now what?
Report them back to DR group at MEDITECH for correction OR…

29. Run your own Initial Load (SPIL)!
Pros – Correct your own data!
Cons – Usually a Band-Aid. DR will again be inaccurate
If the problem is data related it won’t fix the issue

30. Special initial loads (SPIL’s)
This is the M-AT version but it exists in C/S too.

31. A few other ideas about data importance…
Remember that it’s difficult/impossible to deal with data accuracy problems after MEDITECH has purged/archived
“We’re not using this data now”
But you’ll want it to be accurate when you DO need it…
The “butterfly effect”
Small problems in the data can result in big problems when it’s aggregated

32. DR will be the source for everything!
Anything that gathers large volumes of data for reporting to government agencies and otherwise will come from Data Repository

33. What I hope you take away from this session
The importance of accurate DR data
A general understanding of where errors can occur when data is transferred from the MEDITECH applications to DR
Some basics regarding how to troubleshoot these discrepancies
Options available to compare, validate and correct discrepancies

34. Questions?
Thank you!