TriHealth, the Cincinnati region’s nationally recognized health care system, has successfully completed the work needed to be live with the new Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, also known as TEFCA. While nearly 500 hospitals have pledged to join TEFCA, a health exchange framework meant to improve patient care and interoperability across the country, TriHealth is one of only 10 Epic Systems Corporation-affiliated health systems in the nation to go live with the new technology.
“Congratulations to TriHealth for being one of the leaders in TEFCA,” said Epic Director of Interoperability Rob Klootwyk. “This demonstrates their commitment to nationwide interoperability and ensuring that wherever their patients go, their records will follow.”
TEFCA’s goals include simplifying connectivity for organizations, including health care systems, to enable the secure exchange of information and to improve patient care; enhance the welfare of populations; and generate health care value. This will ultimately enable individuals to gather their health care information with greater ease. Epic, a health care software company, previously announced its intent to support health care systems joining TEFCA.
“We are thrilled to be among the first health systems in the country to be live with the TEFCA data exchange,” said Trihealth Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer Donna Peters. “Once again, TriHealth is leading the way with excellence in exchanging critical data to improve care and outcomes for patients, locally as well as nationally.”
TriHealth’s TEFCA implementation is the latest example of the health care system’s commitment to serving patients through excellence in information systems and technology. This fall, TriHealth was recognized by The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) as ranking above peers in categories including analytics and data management; population health; infrastructure; and patient management.