ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – May 21, 2010 – The $7 million ARRA grant allows the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC) to accelerate its plan to serve 2 million patients statewide, with a network largely powered by Centergy Data Exchange Services from MedPlus, the healthcare information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated.
Today, NMHIC has more than 1 million unique patients in its Master Person Index, with access to patient record information from more than 10 hospitals, two major medical groups, and two major laboratories. As the network expands across the entire state, the number of unique patients to be licensed under Centergy will increase to 2 million. NMHIC expects to expand the network statewide in phases, with the first phase to launch this month and all phases scheduled for completion by 2013.
New Mexico is the first state to meet all requirements for strategic and operational planning as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) state health information exchange (HIE) cooperative agreement program, according to the United States Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). While numerous states have secured ARRA planning funding, New Mexico is the first and only state to have executed on its plan to meet ONC criteria and receive approval for implementation funds.
