Case study: NM rolls out EMR to health clinics statewide

In September 2007, New Mexico's Department of Health implemented an EMR for New Mexico's 49 public health offices providing clinical services. Since then, health professionals have taken care of 19,680 patients and recorded 120,524 procedures with the new technology. The new EMR comes as part of Gov. Bill Richardson's (D-NM) telehealth and HIT initiatives in the state. The idea behind it is to improve care quality within the public health system, as well to use the data to better determine what services patients in the system need.

To date, the EMR project has cost the state $1.3 million, $750,000 of which came from outside funding. Meanwhile, the Department of Health has received $900,000 from a matching grant program to help the state get private medical practices to install EMRs. To date, 122 of the state's physicians in 36 communities have begun the process of rolling out EMRs in their practices.

To learn more about the EMR project:
- read this state of New Mexico press release (.pdf)

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