Epic TEFCA aligns with the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), a national initiative to standardize and improve interoperability across healthcare systems. By participating in TEFCA, Epic facilitates the exchange of patient health information across different EHR platforms, enabling providers to access the right data at the right time, regardless of where care is delivered.
In this article, we’ll explore what TEFCA is, how Epic integrates within its framework, and how this alignment is shaping the future of data exchange in healthcare operations.
Understanding the Trusted Exchange Framework
The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) is a nationwide framework for the exchange of secure medical records, authorized under the 21st Century Cures Act. It provides a single on-ramp for data exchange nationwide, improving data exchange and enabling healthcare organizations to focus on refining data presentation.
With the TEFCA framework, organizations can access a universal on-ramp for healthcare providers, including those in rural and underserved communities, to connect and exchange health information. Its advanced data exchange networks and support resources make it easier to facilitate interoperability and improve data consistency across healthcare systems.
Benefits and Features of TEFCA Implementation
TEFCA helps health systems improve patient care by providing access to a larger breadth and depth of patient electronic health information. This framework supports various use cases, including Treatment, Individual Access Services, and Public Health Reporting, to provide a more holistic understanding of a patient’s health information and improve patient care.
Additionally, the framework enables secure network-to-network health information exchange across health information networks, similar to mobile phone carriers and banks sharing information electronically. Here’s a closer look at a few key benefits of the TEFCA framework for Epic customers:
Interoperability
Support seamless data exchange between different healthcare organizations and EHR systems, eliminating silos and ensuring providers can access patient information regardless of platform.
Care coordination
Facilitate the secure sharing of patient health data to improve decision-making and deliver coordinated care from multiple providers or across different regions.
Security and compliance
Enable healthcare organizations to meet national standards for data sharing and interoperability, ensuring compliance with federal regulations while streamlining processes for providers and health information networks.
Patient engagement
Leverage enhanced data transparency to improve patient access to their own health data and ensure they can share their medical information securely and stay actively involved in their care journey.
Epic’s Role in TEFCA Adoption and Future Plans
As a leading global healthcare software company, Epic supports healthcare organizations in 16 countries, with over 3,700 hospitals using core Epic applications and over 190 million patients using the intuitive MyChart patient portal.
Epic built the first electronic health record-based interoperability network and has partnered with others to create nationwide exchange frameworks, including TEFCA and Carequality, to ensure secure medical records exchange across the enterprise landscape.
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