Short answer: a PACS data migration moves your imaging studies and reports from an old PACS or archive to a new one. Done well, radiologists keep reading the whole time, every study arrives intact, and priors show up where they should. Sacred Heart Imaging Solutions plans and runs these moves for hospitals, clinics and imaging groups.
When it is time to migrate
Most teams migrate for one of these reasons:
- You are replacing your PACS or moving to a new vendor.
- You are adding a vendor neutral archive (VNA) and want one long-term home for images.
- Your old archive hardware or storage is out of support.
- Two practices or hospitals are merging and need one imaging record.
- A clinic is joining a larger health system and its images have to move with it.
Our process
Every migration follows the same four steps. The details change with your systems, but the order does not.
1. Assessment
We take stock of what you have: how many studies, which modalities, how far back they go, where they live, and how clean the data is. We also note what has to keep running during the move, such as reading, priors fetching and reports to the EHR.
2. Mapping and tag morphing
Old and new systems rarely label things the same way. We map patient IDs, accession numbers, issuer of patient ID, procedure codes and other DICOM tags so studies land in the right patient folder on the new side. Where tags need fixing, we set up rules to correct them on the way through, never by hand one study at a time.
3. Validation
We check the move as it runs, not only at the end. That means comparing study and image counts between source and target, spot-checking studies on the new viewer, and keeping a list of anything that failed with the reason, so nothing quietly goes missing.
4. Cutover
Most of the history moves in the background while the old PACS stays live. Close to go-live we run a final catch-up of recent studies, switch modalities and worklists to the new system, and stay on hand while the first shifts read on it.
Risks and how we avoid them
- Studies under the wrong patient. Caught by mapping IDs up front and testing on a sample before the full run.
- Missing priors on day one. Recent and frequently compared studies are moved first.
- Slowing down the live PACS. Migration traffic is throttled during reading hours and sped up overnight and on weekends.
- Lost reports. Reports and key images are migrated and checked along with the pixel data, not as an afterthought.
- Patient privacy. Data stays inside your network and under your HIPAA policies; nothing is copied to outside systems.
Experience behind the work
Cesar Ramirez has worked on the vendor and hospital side of imaging. As a PowerScribe Implementation Engineer with Nuance / Microsoft, his current work includes clinic migrations using Hyland VNA, Visage PACS and Datafirst. Before that he supported Exa PACS integrations with Visage, GE, Agfa and Philips at Konica Minolta Healthcare, and worked as a PACS Administrator for Endeavor Health and Catholic Health. See the full list on Customers We’ve Served.
FAQs
How long does a PACS migration take?
It depends on how many studies you have, how fast the old system can send them, and how much cleanup the data needs. A small clinic can take weeks; a large hospital archive can take months. We give you an estimate after the assessment, based on a measured test run rather than a guess.
How do you validate migrated studies?
We compare counts of studies and images between the old and new systems, open sample studies on the new viewer, and track every failed or rejected study until it is fixed or explained.
Can you migrate while the PACS stays live?
Yes. That is the normal way to do it. The bulk of the history moves in the background, and only the final catch-up happens around go-live.
Do you also handle VNA migrations?
Yes. Moving into or out of a vendor neutral archive follows the same steps. If you are still deciding, read our VNA vs. PACS guide.
Talk to a PACS consultant
Planning a PACS change or an archive move? See our services or contact us to talk through your systems and timeline.