Surescripts, Epic partner on electronic health records

ARLINGTON, Va. — Electronic prescribing network Surescripts will connect its system to the interoperability platform of a company that provides electronic health records, under a partnership announced Thursday.

Surescripts announced that it would work with Epic to integrate its Clinical Interoperability Network with Epic's Care Everywhere platform, allowing providers who use Epic's EHR to securely exchange clinical information with peers between practices and across health systems, including referrals, discharge summaries and lab results. Clinical interoperability is a healthcare provider's ability to share a patient's health information electronically and, according to experts, is a critical step in accelerating the digital transformation of the country's healthcare system, according to Surescripts, which said that medical information for 150 million patients would be stored in an Epic digital record by next year.

"Surescripts continues to be committed to enhancing our network, expanding our capabilities and enabling the flow of new types of health information to advance connectivity and enable diverse parties to work together," Surescripts president and CEO Harry Totonis said. "With our Clinical Interoperability Network, we will enable broader health information sharing between thousands more care providers nationwide. Our goal is to connect the entire U.S. healthcare system to support improvements in care, safety, cost and health outcomes."

According to a Surescripts survey of 400 physicians, 55% of respondents said important patient information always or frequently arrived after the patient visit, a statistic the company said wasn't surprising because 91% of doctors still use fax machines to share information with other doctors, while 57% use telephones and 53% use electronic health records or the U.S. Postal Service.

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