As the first state to meet all federal requirements for HIE strategic and operational planning, the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC), is expanding its network.
New Mexico was awarded $7.07 million over four years to support HIE work, and NMHIC, which was founded by the Lovelace Clinic Foundation, was also awarded $6.175 million to be a regional extension center (REC).
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) required seven basic network functions to support meaningful use of health IT, said Jeff Blair, director of Health Informatics for both NMHIC and the Lovelace Clinic Foundation.
They include providing:
- Patient clinical information to clinicians
- Clinical lab results to clinicians
- e-reporting of lab results to public health
- Quality reporting to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
- e-prescribing and refills
- Status notification and medication refill information to clinicians
The operational plan submitted by NMHIC laid out how the entity would provide these network services over the course of four years, he said.
Thirteen hospitals are providing and receiving patient care data through NMHIC, Blair said. With its healthcare IT partner, MedPlus, NMHIC expects to connect a number of other hospitals and medical practices in the last half of 2010, he said. In May, the state-designated entity anticipates providing e-reporting of lab results and emergency department conditions to the New Mexico Department of Health, he said.
NMHIC already has a federal contract to provide disability determination information to the Social Security Administration through the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) as part of a pilot project.
NMHIC is in conversation with the Indian Health Service and ONC to share information over the NHIN later this year, as well as with the Veterans Administration and ONC. "It's especially important to us in New Mexico because we have significant populations of Indian tribes who receive care through the New Mexico Veterans Administration hospitals," said Maggie Gunter, president and executive director. "This will enable us to do care coordination with private healthcare facilities within the state through the NHIN."
With all the projects NMHIC has to accomplish, the state is facing significant challenges. One of the biggest challenges is getting the 1,000-plus physicians to meaningful use within the designated deadline of February 2012, said CIO David Perry. "Some of our priority primary care physicians won't have an EHR and some will. It varies," he said. Health information exchange is just one of the meaningful use criteria, he said. Still, Perry is "very optimistic" about the state's abilities, given its HIE infrastructure and its REC designation to extend exchange capabilities and help its physicians deploy EHRs.
New Mexico is far ahead of the pack, and many states have asked NMHIC for guidance in the development of their state HIE plans, said Blair. "It's a nice recognition by ONC," he said, of being the first state to meet all ONC requirements for strategic and operational planning. Blair is quick to point out, however, that NMHIC is part of a community that shares information with many HIEs. "We have lessons to learn to from other successful HIEs," he said.
