Public Health Data Collection and Reporting in New Mexico
The law requires all health care providers and facilities with knowledge of an individual with a ‘notifiable’ condition to report the disease to the Department of Health. All notifiable condition reports are confidential, but may be used to do research as long as the information is protected.1 The law mandates that a registry be maintained identifying every employee that has abused, neglected or exploited a person receiving care.2 An immunization registry has also been established in order to house all immunization records in the state.3
All providers that diagnose an STD must report the disease immediately to the local health officer.4 Similarly, all incidences of an individual being infected with a contagious disease must also be reported.5 For public health purposes and STD clinics, consent from the individual is not required to perform an HIV test.6
New Mexico has created a health information system to collect, analyze and share health information as well as standardize collection methods in the state.7 A provider can access the information he or she has submitted to the health information system as well as aggregate data, however, a provider cannot access the information that another provider has submitted to the system.8