The two trial implementations are preparations for NMHIC's goal of being operational by the end of July 2009 and eventually covering the state's 2 million residents and all its hospitals and physician groups, said Jeff Blair, director of Health Informatics for the Lovelace Clinic Foundation, which is leading the statewide health information exchange efforts.
"A lot of implementations of electronic health records are going on in the state among hospitals and large medical practices," he said. "It's changing at a rapid rate."
Providers don't have to have an EHR to access the clinician portal, developed with technology partners MedPlus for the platform and Cisco for security.
NMHIC will offer five services over its clinician portal. With patient consent, clinicians will be able to access summary patient records, lab results, radiology results, discharge summaries and emergency responder information.
New Mexico is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, as well as Kirkland Air Force Base. It has a large Veterans Administration facility and a significant presence by the Indian Health Services and the Department of Defense.
Through a local single gateway, "NMHIC will allow us to connect healthcare providers within our own state with the Veterans Health Administration, the Military Health System and the Indian Health Services," he said.
In addition to connecting to these federal health systems, access for the state's rural population and providers is a high priority, Blair said.
For the September use case, NMHIC worked with Presbyterian Healthcare Services, the largest healthcare provider in the state with eight hospitals, and Tricor Reference Laboratory, the largest reference laboratory in the state. Both partners have been linked to NMHIC for four months.
NMHIC is the only HIE to present for the emergency responder use case, which will demonstrate the ability to exchange patient data through electronic health records with emergency responders, he said. In addition to Tricor Reference Laboratory and Presbyterian Healthcare Services, NMHIC is working with Albuquerque Ambulance and Holy Cross Hospital in Taos. The New Mexico Department of Health will receive the emergency responder information sent by the other participants.
The HIE has received funding from the New Mexico State legislators and the New Mexico Department of Health. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality awarded a three-year matching grant for the Lovelace Clinic Foundation to establish a community-wide HIE. Blair noted that the stakeholders matching the grant cover a broad spectrum, including employers, health plans, providers, medical groups and professional associations. NMHIC recently completed its business plan, which is under review. Thus far, stakeholder reaction has been "positive," said Blair, but discussions will take place over several months before specific financial commitments are approved.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Patty Enrado
Quelle/Source: Healthcare IT News, 04.11.2008
