New Mexico Launches Next Generation, Outcomes-Based Health Information Exchange, SYNCRONYS

Albuquerque, NM – March 15, 2021 – SYNCRONYS, along with its partners Collective Medical, a PointClickCare company, Rhodes Group and Orion Health, is launching the next generation of health information exchange and laying the foundation for a state-of-the art program that will serve as a groundbreaking care collaboration model for the rest of the country. This is in accordance with the vision of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), to enhance, utilize and share technology in place in the ecosystem.

“With our partners, we are building an integrated infrastructure and organization, providing the right actionable data at the right time and at the right place. This integration will allow healthcare providers who use the HIE to make the best-informed decisions to deliver high-quality care to New Mexicans,” said Terri Stewart, Chief Administrative Officer of SYNCRONYS. In October 2020, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham designated SYNCRONYS as the State of New Mexico’s Health Information Exchange.

This program and partnership will greatly expand the capabilities and reach of the HIE with a focus on clinical and financial outcomes to support New Mexico stakeholders. Priority initiatives for the project include:

• Expand access to and increase the health data stored in the aggregated longitudinal clinical record to include diagnostic images, advance directives and Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment (MOST) forms and data analytics dashboards to provide actionable insights
• Increase health information sharing between disparate healthcare facilities by connecting the majority of New Mexico healthcare facilities and providers to the HIE
• Reduce the number of (and corresponding expense from) New Mexico residents struggling with substance use disorder (SUD)
• Decrease resource requirements and reduce complication rates through smoother transitions of care between care settings (from acute to post-acute facilities)
• Drive security and better decision making in the Emergency Department (ED) to enable a focus on patients truly in need of ED care
• Drive awareness and action for individuals’ holistic mental health needs across acute and ambulatory settings
• Understand all healthcare aspects (diagnosis, treatment, and sustained viral loads) of Hepatitis C across New Mexico via a new population health feature

To support this significant initiative to benefit New Mexico patients and providers, SYNCRONYS is collaborating with Collective Medical, Orion Health, Rhodes Group, eHealth Technologies and HBI Analytics. This partnership will enhance the data sets and value to the current New Mexico HIE stakeholders and users.

Collective Medical, supporting care collaboration for more than 1,300 hospitals and over one hundred health plans and other risk bearing entities nationwide, has a significant presence with New Mexico hospitals, health systems, health plans and other providers. The partnership between SYNCRONYS and Collective will deliver substance use disorder management, emergency department optimization, transitions of care management, and collaboration and coordination for mental health programs.

“The care teams we support in New Mexico have pursued innovative approaches to improving patient outcomes for years, and Collective is excited to enrich and expand the resources available to them via this collaboration led by SYNCRONYS,” said Chris Klomp, EVP of Acute and Payer Markets, PointClickCare. “We’re honored to be a small part of the State’s initiative to continue to evolve the definition of health information exchange and prove that, as a healthcare utility for the greater good, HIEs play an integral role in enabling effective, use-case driven real-time care delivery and population health management.”

Rhodes Group, a subsidiary of TriCore Reference Laboratories, based in Albuquerque, NM, has a history of helping laboratories and health systems translate longitudinal lab results into clinically actionable information to manage individual and population health. Powered by the longitudinal laboratory results dataset, Rhodes Group’s clinical analytics can be used to supplement Managed Care Organization member outreach and lead to improved member identification for disease management operations. “By partnering with SYNCRONYS, Orion Health and Collective Medical, Rhodes will combine laboratory analytics with other use cases to collectively create a cutting edge HIE infrastructure that allows New Mexico care teams with the most clinically relevant and actionable patient information”, said Rick VanNess, Director of Product Development for the Rhodes Group.

Orion Health, a New Zealand-based global software company, will update the SYNCRONYS HIE platform to the Amadeus Platform, which uses a scalable database to capture and align patient information from multiple providers and payers, creating an innovative healthcare ecosystem and improving the functionality for end users. “Orion Health has a long-standing relationship with SYNCRONYS and we’re very excited to work with SYNCRONYS, Collective Medical and Rhodes Group to build a unified solution that benefits patients and providers throughout New Mexico,” said Chad Peterson, VP National Accounts, Orion Health.

eHealth Technologies, based in the US and founded in 2006, will provide, full diagnostic, secure, quality imaging utilizing their high-performance technology via the SYNCRONYS clinical portal. Medical images are essential to deliver informed, effective, and efficient patient care. Users of this feature have the ability to engage in immediate consultations with any caregiver in the HIE community with one-click.

HBI Solutions, founded by individuals rooted in providing healthcare and healthcare technology, will partner with us on our quality measures. HBI Solutions delivers actionable information that helps providers reduce patient health risks, improve care quality, and lower the cost of care.

The New Mexico HIE is moving to a next-generation collaborative model serving providers and payers in support of their shared patients. New Mexico has realized that working together in a public-private partnership is much more powerful than working alone. The focus is on delivering high-value, seamless interoperability services with an emphasis on delivering use cases tied to specific value objectives. “We embark on these efforts with the belief this new model will result in greater value and improved outcomes for healthcare teams, providers and patients across New Mexico,” said Terri Stewart, Chief Administrative Officer, SYNCRONYS.

SYNCRONYS, previously doing business as the Lovelace Clinic Foundation d/b/a NMHIC, is New Mexico’s designated health information exchange (HIE). With the goal of demonstrating the value of an outcomes-based, use case-oriented HIE, New Mexico and federal stakeholders intend for SYNCRONYS to be a model for the country as states transition from the HITECH program into the next phase of clinical interoperability. Thomas East, Ph.D., CEO of SYNCRONYS stated, “We are excited about the opportunity to provide data, analytics and actionable insights to support healthcare providers in caring for New Mexicans.”

ABOUT SYNCRONYS

SYNCRONYS is a private, not-for-profit organization formed in 1990, aimed to improve New Mexico’s healthcare for all New Mexicans. SYNCRONYS is the State of New Mexico’s designated Health Information Exchange (HIE). For more information visit www.SYNCRONYS.org

For more information please contact
Terri Stewart, Chief Administrative Officer, SYNCRONYS
Phone: 505 938 9909
Email: tstewart@syncronys.org