Definitions

New Mexico Administrative Code provides definitions for reportable “incidents” for Outpatient Facilities, Adult Day Care Facilities, and Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICF/MR), but the definitions are slightly different for each medical entitiy. Six (6) different occurrences are included in the definitions for these three types of facilities that have mandatory reporting:

• •   All three types of medical entities require “Incident” reports for:
  • 1. environmental disasters (fire, flood, etc.),
  • 2. contagious/notifiable disease outbreak, and
  • 3. abuse (as defined by the “Resident Abuse and Neglect Act” NMSA 1978), (plus Adult Day care Facilities specifically includes sexual abuse).
• •  Adult Day Care Facilities is alone in reporting
  • 4. lost or missing participants as reportable “incidents.”
• •  Adult Day Care Facilities require reporting of occurences that may / may not reflect medical error:
  • 5. “accidents or injuries requiring medical care,”
• •  Lastly, Outpatient Facilities and ICF/MRs are required to report:
  • 6. “any serious human errors by staff members of the facility which has resulted in the death, serious illness, or physical impairment of a patient.” These errors are not further interpreted by the Department of Health.