24 health systems join TEFCA through Epic QHIN

A group of providers is pledging to use Epic software to share patient health information through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement in a new agreement with Epic TEFCA Interoperability Services, the electronic health records vendor said.

why it matters

Epic says health organizations that are joining its Qualified Health Information Network are already using Epic’s interoperability tools to advance information sharing, but they will receive their own interoperability software this year .

According to Monday’s announcement, that set of providers was accepted to enter the QHIN trial phase under TEFCA in February.

Participating medical organizations are some of the best-known in the U.S., ranging in size from large health systems and hospitals to security apparatus in groups joining the TEFCA framework across the country, the EHR vendor said.

“We have long supported regional partnerships to promote data sharing for treatment and our Northern California partners are among the early participants in the CareQuality Framework,” said Dr. Matthew Eisenberg, associate chief medical information officer at Stanford Health Care. As a leader in national interoperability.” a statement.

“We are excited about Saral’s vision to secure a national health information exchange, if not a single on-ramp, that will benefit all of our patients and providers.”

Epic QHIN’s Committed Health Organizations are:

• Alameda Health System
• Baptist Health (Florida)
• Baptist Health (Kentucky)
• cedars-sinai
• Contra Costa Health
• Guthrie
• Hawaii Pacific Health
• Houston Methodist
• Johns Hopkins Medicine
• kaiser permanente
• keycare
• Heritage Health
• Mayo Clinic
• Metro Health
• Michigan Medicine
• Mount Sinai Health System
• NYU Langone Health
• ochin
• association of pediatricians in children
• rush university medical center
• Stanford Health Care
• UC Davis Health
• Weill Cornell Medicine
• Yale New Haven Health

big trend

With the launch of TEFCA last year, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the Sequoia Project, the recognized coordinating body for national interoperability, said they have three goals:

• To establish a universal policy and technical basis for nationwide interoperability.
• Simplifying the secure exchange of patient data to improve patient care.
• So that patients can collect information about their health.

ONC inaugurated six QHINs to establish a universal policy for interoperability and simplify secure connectivity across organizations across the country.

Last week, MedAllies announced its approval as the seventh QHIN under TEFCA.

“If we’re able to do that, we’re going to be able to realize one of the most important aspirations we have as a country today, which is to improve health outcomes for every American regardless of gender, sexual regardless of orientation, race, ethnicity or zip code,” Dr. Aarti Prabhakar, science advisor and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said at a February event in which several federal agencies marked interoperability milestones. was marked.

Matt Doyle, interoperability software development lead at Epic, told Healthcare IT News in March that for QHINs to onboard healthcare providers, “you need policies that foster trust.”

On the record

“By joining TEFCA, these health systems reaffirm their continued commitment to improving patient care by advancing the exchange of health information,” Doyle said in a statement.

“We plan to deliver software this year that will help our customers join the initial participants in TEFCA, and we expect nearly all 2,000 hospitals and 600,000 physicians using Epic across the United States to participate.”

Andrea Fox is a senior editor for Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.