Behind the Scenes - How We Collaboratively Bent the COVID Curve in NM
By Dr. Jason Mitchell
Last week NM was lauded in The NY Times for our success in averting death in one of the poorest states in the nation. I wanted to provide a clinician’s view of how this was accomplished from behind the scenes.
Success in New Mexico is rooted in the ability of state leadership and the major health systems to prioritize the people of NM over the natural historical divisions you see in any state. As a health care community, we quickly mobilized and made all our resources available to the State. We partnered with the DOH and even co-located the department and the three major health systems in our Presbyterian corporate office (maintaining social distancing of course). Rivalries forgotten, we worked together every day for a common purpose - saving lives.
Internally, our Presbyterian clinicians joined together and quickly built drive-through and mobile testing so we could identify patients with COVID, care for them, and prevent spread. We did not worry about payment and instead placed our mobile teams at the direction of DOH. We went wherever they needed us, including nursing homes and pueblos. In just over a month, we were able to test 15,000 New Mexicans with our drive-thru and mobile teams. We innovated using robotic process automation to quickly register and screen patients through our AI digital exam, even when we had no established patient relationship.
