Fifty-one percent of hospitals and health systems plan to join a health information exchange network such as the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, a May 31 survey from the American Hospital Association found.
The survey, conducted in December 2022, surveyed almost 2,500 leaders of nonfederal acute care hospitals on their awareness of TEFCA and if they were planning on joining. Here's what the survey found:
- Twenty-five percent of hospitals said they were unaware of TEFCA, with 23 percent stating they were aware of TEFCA but unsure if they would participate.
- Twenty-nine percent of independent hospitals said they plan to participate in TEFCA compared with 61 percent of multihospital system members.
- Thirty-two percent of critical access hospitals said they plan to participate compared with 59 percent of noncritical access hospitals.
- Eighteen percent of hospitals that do not participate in one of three national networks said they plan to participate compared with 65 percent of hospitals that already participate.
The data comes shortly after leading health systems from across the country — such as Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care and Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic — pledged to use Epic Systems software to share health information with the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.