OnBase Epic Integration: How Documents Reach the Epic Chart (2026)

Updated October 2026

OnBase Epic integration connects Hyland's OnBase document archive to the Epic chart so that scanned paper, outside records and ancillary documents stored in OnBase open inside Epic for clinicians, HIM and billing staff. It works through three links: documents are captured and indexed in OnBase using patient and visit data from Epic, OnBase sends Epic an HL7 message that files a link to each document, and Epic opens the image from OnBase through a viewer or an image retrieval call when someone clicks it.

This guide is for health system IT teams, Epic analysts and product teams who need OnBase documents to show up in Epic correctly and stay correct. It covers the Epic interfaces involved, how a scan reaches the chart, the three ways to view OnBase content in Hyperspace and Hyperdrive, where FHIR fits, how corrections stay in sync, and what changes if you plan to move documents into Epic Gallery instead.

What OnBase Epic integration does

OnBase Epic integration lets Epic users scan, find and open OnBase documents from inside Epic, while OnBase stays the system that stores the images. Hyland's documentation describes the Integration for Epic as several OnBase modules, including the Scan Acquisition Server, the OnBase Application Server and the HL7 module, that let users scan, manage and retrieve documents from within Epic.

In practice the integration does four jobs:

• Capture: paper and electronic files enter OnBase from a desktop scanner, a front desk, a registration kiosk, a production scanning room or a batch import. Indexing uses patient and encounter data that comes from Epic, so staff do not retype it.
• Link: OnBase tells Epic that a document exists for a patient, encounter or order. Epic files a pointer, so the document appears in the chart in the right place.
• View: when a user opens the document in Epic, the image comes from OnBase through the Healthcare Web Viewer, a SMART on FHIR launch, or an image retrieval call that shows it inline.
• Sync: when HIM moves, re-indexes or deletes a document in either system, the other system is told, so the link still points at the right patient and visit.

Hyland lists Epic modules the integration touches, including Prelude registration and ADT, EpicCare Inpatient and Ambulatory, Resolute Hospital and Professional Billing, Radiant, EpicCare Link, Release of Information and Epic Welcome. Each one adds its own capture or viewing point, so an OnBase Epic project is usually several small integrations, each with its own tests.

The Epic interfaces an OnBase integration uses

An OnBase Epic integration uses a handful of Epic HL7 v2 interfaces and web services, all listed on open.epic. HL7 messages pass through Bridges, which Epic describes as its core messaging infrastructure. If you are new to how Epic interfaces are built and tested, read our guide to Epic Bridges integration first.

Not every site uses every row. A health system that only needs scanned documents in the chart can start with ADT out, scanned document links in and a viewer. Billing scanning, deficiency tracking and print services come later as separate pieces of work.

How a scanned document reaches the Epic chart

A scanned document reaches the Epic chart in five steps: Epic supplies the patient and visit, OnBase captures and indexes the image, OnBase sends an HL7 MDM message, Epic files the link, and the image is fetched from OnBase when someone opens it. The sequence below follows a registration scan at a front desk.

Capture options

OnBase gives Epic sites several ways to capture a document, and the choice decides how much indexing staff have to do:

• Scan Acquisition Server. A light scanning option for desktops. Users scan with a TWAIN, Kofax or ISIS scanner, sweep in existing electronic files such as photos, or print to the Hyland Virtual Print Driver.
• Front Office Scanning. An alternative to the Scan Acquisition Server for registration desks. Staff scan from Epic into OnBase, mark up documents and capture signatures, and the documents are indexed with information provided by Epic.
• Epic Welcome kiosk. Patients who register at an Epic Welcome kiosk can scan and upload documents to OnBase, and OnBase files them using the patient's registration information.
• Production and batch scanning. Hyland's HL7 module supports batch scanning, Document Import Processing and COLD. Hyland's own example: payer remittances are batch scanned into OnBase, and OnBase generates an HL7 message that is imported into Epic.
• EpicCare Link. Outside users can view OnBase documents from a medical record in EpicCare Link, PlanLink or EpicWeb, and upload documents straight to OnBase.

The MDM message Epic receives

Epic's Incoming Scanned Document Link interface requires messages in HL7 MDM format. In the HL7 v2 standard, MDM events T02, T04, T06, T08 and T10 carry document content in OBX segments after the TXA segment, while T01, T03, T05, T07, T09 and T11 are notifications without content. For a link-only design, the TXA segment and the document identifier matter most; for a design that sends the file itself, the base64 content goes in OBX. Our post on MDM document messages in Mirth Connect walks through the segments field by field.

The exact fields Epic reads (document type, encounter number, link keywords) come from Epic's interface specification and from your Epic build, so map them with your Epic interface analyst before writing any transformation. A document type that exists in OnBase but has no matching Epic document type is the most common reason a scan files to the wrong tab or not at all.

Viewing OnBase documents inside Epic: COM, SMART on FHIR or Image Retrieval

Epic users can open OnBase documents in three ways, and the right one depends on whether the site runs Epic Hyperspace or Epic Hyperdrive and where in Epic the image must appear. Hyland states that its SMART on FHIR integration for Epic works only with Hyperdrive, and that Hyperspace environments use the COM integration.

The Image Retrieval API also drives search. Hyland's Epic Chart Search solution explains that Epic uses the Image Retrieval API to OCR linked OnBase documents, so Chart Search results can include text inside scans. When a document changes in OnBase, an HL7 notification sent through OnBase Workflow tells Epic to OCR it again. If your users rely on Chart Search, that notification is part of the integration, and it needs its own test cases.

For a broader view of SMART launches, scopes and app review in Epic, see our Epic SMART on FHIR app development page.

Where FHIR fits in an OnBase Epic integration

FHIR handles the viewer launch and some document exchange, and HL7 v2 MDM still carries most scanned documents into Epic. On the Epic side, the DocumentReference create for document information is designed for scanning integrations through the Hyperdrive Scan Acquisition workflow and cannot be called outside that workflow. Epic's DocumentReference create for clinical notes files plain text notes, and Epic's own documentation points to the HL7 v2 scanned document and MDM interfaces for PDFs and rich text.

On the OnBase side, Hyland's FHIR module lets OnBase act as the repository for clinical content from other systems, so users of those systems can create, read, update and delete OnBase content without leaving their own screens. That is useful when a third application, such as a referral portal or a mobile capture app, needs to store files in OnBase and have them appear in Epic.

If you are translating between the two, HL7's official v2-to-FHIR mapping maps the TXA and OBX segments of an MDM T02 message to a FHIR DocumentReference. Our guide to FHIR DocumentReference across Epic, Oracle Health and athenahealth covers the read side, and how to integrate with Epic covers app registration and access.

Keeping OnBase and Epic in sync after corrections

OnBase and Epic stay in sync when every move, re-index and deletion in one system sends a message to the other. Documents get filed to the wrong patient, the wrong encounter or the wrong document type, duplicates need removing, and some scans are too poor to read. Hyland's document correction process sends these documents to OnBase Workflow, where a small group of HIM users re-index or correct them, and OnBase can send an HL7 message telling Epic that a document was created, modified or deleted.

Test each row with real document types before go-live. A correction that updates one system and not the other leaves a link that opens the wrong patient's document, which is a privacy incident as well as a data problem.

Other Epic touchpoints in the Hyland integration

Beyond scanning and viewing, Hyland documents several smaller Epic integrations that HIM, billing and access teams often ask for:

• Release of Information. Epic Hyperspace users print OnBase documents from Epic's Release of Information screen.
• Signature Deficiencies for Epic. Analysts assign deficiencies on OnBase documents to physicians, who accept or decline them, and the documents route through completion.
• Patient Window. A web-based records retrieval tool that gives Epic users access to OnBase records.
• Web BLOB pass-through. Archives unstructured content in OnBase instead of Epic's own binary storage.
• Billing. Remittance scanning feeds Resolute through Epic's Incoming EOB Scanning interface.

Staying on OnBase or moving documents to Epic Gallery

Some Epic organizations are moving patient documents out of OnBase and into Epic Gallery, and migration firms such as 314e and Harmony Healthcare IT now offer OnBase to Gallery conversions. The work is an extraction and mapping project: pull historical documents and their index values out of OnBase, map OnBase document types and custom metadata to Gallery's structure, load them, and validate metadata, retention and access controls.

Two points shape that decision. First, Gallery is built for patient documents, so content such as invoices, HR records and vendor contracts that lives in OnBase today needs another home. Second, every scanned document link in Epic that points at OnBase has to be repointed or replaced, so the link keys you design now affect how hard any later migration will be. If a migration is possible within a few years, keep the OnBase document identifier, Epic document type and encounter in every link message, and keep a log of every link sent.

OnBase Epic integration checklist

An OnBase Epic integration is ready for go-live when each item below has an owner and a passed test. We use this list when we review an existing integration or scope a new one:

1. Epic client. Hyperspace, Hyperdrive or both, which decides COM or SMART on FHIR for viewing.
2. Document type map. Every OnBase document type mapped to an Epic document type and chart location, with an owner for new types.
3. Link keys. Patient, encounter or order, and OnBase document identifier in every MDM message, matched to what Epic's specification and your build expect.
4. ADT feed. Merges, unmerges and encounter changes from Epic reach OnBase indexing, including test cases for each.
5. Corrections. Both directions tested: Epic link maintenance to OnBase, and OnBase updates and deletes to Epic.
6. Deficiencies. Which tool owns signature deficiencies on scans, Hyland's or Epic's web services, and how a scan satisfies an HIM deficiency.
7. Viewer security. HTTPS on the OnBase Web Server, as Hyland recommends, identity provider set-up for SMART launches, and who can see which document types.
8. Chart Search and MyChart. Whether OnBase images should appear in Chart Search and MyChart, and the Image Retrieval and change notifications that requires.
9. Monitoring. Alerts for rejected MDM messages, queue backlogs in the interface engine and documents in OnBase with no Epic link.
10. Volumes and back-loads. Day-one back-scan or historical link load sized and scheduled outside clinic hours.

Teams that put an interface engine such as Mirth Connect between OnBase and Epic gain a place to transform document types, hold messages during Epic downtime and replay them, and log every link for audit and future migration.

Get an OnBase Epic integration review

If your OnBase documents are landing in the wrong place in Epic, Chart Search misses scans, or you are planning a Hyperdrive move or a Gallery migration, an architecture review shows what to change and in what order. We map your current OnBase and Epic interfaces, trace a sample of documents end to end, and give you a fixed list of fixes and tests. Book an OnBase Epic integration review.

We build and support healthcare interoperability solutions across HL7 v2, FHIR and SMART on FHIR, including EHR integration work for document, imaging and ancillary systems. Talk to our team to get started.