Switching to a new patient record system can be exciting, but jumping in without understanding your current records can create more headaches than it solves. Not all records are the same, some track medical history, others handle billing, and some combine both.
If you don’t know what types of records you have and how they’re used, transferring data can become confusing, time-consuming, and even risky. In this blog, we’ll explain why it’s crucial to understand your record types before making a switch and share practical tips to ensure a smooth transition that keeps your practice organized and your patients safe.
Assembling Your Record Type Inventory Pre-Migration
Understanding record types demands building a comprehensive catalog before anyone touches live production environments. You can’t transfer what you haven’t documented, and mapping undefined elements is impossible.
The Focused Two-Week Assessment
Block out 10-15 business days for legitimate due diligence. Pull every record type specification from your existing infrastructure. Capture field interdependencies, automation pathways, API connections, and access control schemas. Document ownership per type, volume metrics, and which ones carry sensitive information requiring compliance scrutiny.
Choosing What Gets Combined vs. Split Out
This is where switching systems best practices become mission-critical. Resist the temptation to clone your legacy architecture into the new environment. Certain record types that seemed logical half a decade ago might be redundant now, perhaps “Gold Customer” and “Platinum Customer” collapse into one unified type with a simple tier attribute.
Conversely, you’ll occasionally need to diversify. During healthcare platform shifts, particularly when organizations are evaluating EHR vs. EMR options, teams routinely uncover that a monolithic “patient encounter” record type from the legacy setup should fragment into clinical, financial, and administrative variants in the modern platform to satisfy regulatory mandates and enable specialized workflows.
With your gap assessment wrapped, you’re positioned to construct the mapping framework that becomes your authoritative reference throughout the entire transition.
What Record Types Actually Run Under the Hood
Record types in data management go way beyond simple tags, they’re basically the genetic code dictating how your entire platform operates. Whether you’re running Salesforce, SAP, or something in between, every serious enterprise system leans on some flavor of record categorization that controls what unfolds when your team creates, modifies, or pulls reports from data.
The Invisible Blueprint Powering Each Record
Picture record types as air traffic controllers managing your information flow. They determine which input fields populate a form, which validation checks activate, and which automated sequences fire off. When your sales team logs an “Enterprise Deal” compared to a “Small Business Opportunity,” the platform might demand separate approval workflows, display distinct pricing modules, or ping entirely different departments.
The bulk of migration failures stem from treating record types like window dressing when they’re actually load-bearing walls. Alter a record type during your transition, and you’ve potentially fractured integrations, query logic, and access hierarchies that your organization spent years constructing.
How Record Types Manifest Across Different Systems
Healthcare databases frequently separate encounter formats or diagnosis groupings. Financial platforms might sort transactions by asset class or accounting bucket. SimplePractice, a leading practice management platform for wellness professionals, structures client details and appointment categories quite differently than standard CRM tools.
Developing Your Migration Mapping Blueprint
An immaculate mapping blueprint means nothing if the actual data doesn’t transfer cleanly, here’s your roadmap for validating, staging, and tracking migrations to safeguard quality while reducing disruption.
The Spreadsheet That Rescues Your Entire Project
Construct a mapping matrix featuring these dimensions: source record type, destination record type, field conversions, fallback values, validation protocols, business stakeholder, and testing scenarios. Include explicit handling procedures for “unclassified” or sunset types, they’ll surface inevitably, and silently discarding that information isn’t an option.
Every transformation protocol must maintain semantic integrity, not merely shuffle values around. If your legacy platform logged timestamps in regional time zones and the replacement demands UTC formatting, spell out that conversion unambiguously.
Protecting Relationship Connections
Parent-child associations and reference fields fracture easily mid-migration. Import foundational data initially, then parent entities, followed by dependent records. Deploy crosswalk lookup tables mapping historical IDs to new identifiers so connected integrations don’t malfunction when querying by record identifiers.
Pre-Launch Testing and Staging Protocols
Database migration tips typically emphasize technical execution but gloss over the quality checkpoints that genuinely avert production catastrophes. Here’s what actually delivers results.
Analyzing Your Data Before Transit
Execute completeness audits per record type. If 95% of your “Contract” entries contain expiration dates in the source system, you’d better observe identical proportions post-migration. Spot-verify against permissible values and flag anomalies, if you suddenly register 10x more “Pending” status entries than previously, your mapping logic breaks somewhere.
Avoid wholesale migrations. Select 1-2 high-stakes record types, transition them in a controlled pilot batch, and verify end-to-end functionality before committing to comprehensive cutover. Research indicates approximately 29% of initiatives collapse due to depleted funding , and migration rework represents one of the quickest paths to budget exhaustion.
Maintaining Record Type Hygiene Post-Launch
Your system transition checklist can’t conclude at go-live. Governance ultimately determines whether your migration investment compounds over time or deteriorates back into the chaos you escaped.
Accountability Structures That Actually Function
Designate a business sponsor, data custodian, system administrator, and integration lead for each vital record type. Implement a modification request pipeline with version tracking so unvetted types don’t materialize without authorization. Quarterly audits intercept drift before it snowballs.
Institute naming standards and documentation templates. Mandate conversational definitions so future team members don’t need to decode what “RT_CUST_03” signifies three years downstream.
Performance Dashboards Per Record Type
Monitor completeness ratios, validity percentages, and freshness indicators for each classification. Establish thresholds, if mandatory fields slip below 98% population rates, activate correction protocols. Connect quality targets to departmental scorecards so accountability remains transparent.
Nailing Your Migration on the First Attempt
Understanding record types before throwing the switch isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s the bedrock determining whether your replacement system evolves into a productivity multiplier or an expensive source of regret. Chart every dependency, validate obsessively, and govern relentlessly.
Organizations that approach record types as strategic infrastructure rather than technical footnotes are still leveraging their platforms effectively five years later without needing another painful transition. Your future self will be grateful you invested this effort upfront rather than troubleshooting fractured workflows while everyone’s breathing down your neck.
Common Questions About Record Type Migrations
When should you use record types in Salesforce?
They should be used for records that have the same concept, but need to be different in execution. Record types can be created on any standard or custom object in Salesforce, allowing you to configure different page layouts and fields.
What are the characteristics of a good record keeping system?
Records must be contemporaneous, accurate, and kept up to date. They must be written in plain English avoiding jargon, clearly distinguish between statements of fact and opinion, and if moved to new locations, must be monitored and kept securely.
How do you prevent duplicate records when switching systems?
Define uniqueness rules per record type before migration. Use crosswalk tables to map old IDs to new ones, run deduplication logic during data profiling, and implement match-and-merge workflows in the target system to catch duplicates post-launch.
