Understanding the network behind GetPatientRecords.

For years, accessing medical records meant phone calls, faxes, and waiting days for data to arrive. But now that’s changing.

National data exchange networks connect hospitals, clinics, and health systems through shared legal and technical standards. These networks make it possible for organizations to retrieve patient information instantly, no matter which EHR or system it originated from.

In short, this is the infrastructure that makes interoperability real.

TEFCA, or the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, is a federal initiative designed to standardize how electronic health information is shared across the U.S.

It creates a “rules of the road” for health data exchange, ensuring that any organization connecting through a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) can securely access and share patient data nationwide.

Instead of managing dozens of one-off integrations, TEFCA allows healthcare organizations to connect once and exchange data everywhere.

TEFCA isn’t just a policy, organizations are actively connected through it today.
With Epic hospitals, athenahealth, and other major vendors now participating, the network is rapidly expanding.

For healthcare organizations, this means:

• Faster access to complete patient records
• Fewer manual workflows and integration hurdles
• Improved care coordination and data-driven decision-making

And for developers, payers, and digital health innovators, it means direct access to the same national network infrastructure that powers large health systems, without needing an EHR integration team to get there.

National networks such as eHealth Exchange, CommonWell Health Alliance, and Carequality are the core infrastructure behind TEFCA.They follow shared technical and legal standards so data can move safely between systems and organizations that have never worked together before.These networks are:

• Secure and verified through certificate-based exchange
• Standardized with common frameworks for how data moves
• Collaborative through mutual trust agreements and shared directories

Together, they form the “plumbing” that lets GetPatientRecords pull medical data instantly from hospitals and clinics across the country.