CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY: health choice network
Seamless Clinical Data Archiving to De-Risk & Accelerate Epic Transformation
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STORY OVERVIEW
Health Center 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.
PARTNER PROFILE
Partner Since: 2022
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.
Partner Overview: Health Center Network (HCN) is a nationwide collaboration supporting community health centers with technology, business services, and an Epic-powered EHR model designed specifically for FQHCs.
The Challenge
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 & confusion
around multiple sources of truth
Regulatory & 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
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.
The Impact
Today, ELLKAY supports the vast majority of HCN’s Epic-enabled health centers:
25 of 29 Epic centers currently use ELLKAY for archiving
40+ legacy EHR systems successfully decommissioned across diverse platforms and formats
Eliminated ongoing legacy system licensing, infrastructure, and support costs
Standardized fragmented data (TIFFs, JPEGs, PDFs, and more) into a single, searchable archive
Reduced compliance risk by maintaining complete, audit-ready patient records without relying on legacy systems
The integrated archive provides transparency when full records are needed, without cluttering daily clinical workflows.
Result: HCN eliminated legacy system dependence while maintaining full historical access—without compromising clinician workflow or Epic adoption.
“Cost savings, reduced risk, and having a single source of truth—that’s been huge for us,” Sanchez said. “And the integration alone is a 100% win.”
Working with ELLKAY
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.
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.”
There are very few partners I feel 100% comfortable handing directly to our health centers. With ELLKAY, I never worry—they always represent HCN well.
Farren Hurwitz
Director, Strategic Partnerships
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