N.M. Stat. § 24-1-2

Current through 2024, ch. 69

Section 24-1-2 - Definitions

As used in the Public Health Act:

A. "condition of public health importance" means an infection, a disease, a syndrome, a symptom, an injury or other threat that is identifiable on an individual or community level and can reasonably be expected to lead to adverse health effects in the community;

B. "crisis triage center" means a health facility that:

(1) is licensed by the department of health; and

(2) provides stabilization of behavioral health crises and may include residential and nonresidential stabilization;

C. "department" means:

(1) the department of health; or

(2) the children, youth and families department as to residential treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, community mental health centers that serve only persons up to twenty-one years of age, day treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, shelter care homes and those outpatient facilities that are also community-based behavioral health facilities serving only persons up to twenty-one years of age;

D. "director" means the secretary;

E. "health care provider" means a person licensed to provide health care in the ordinary course of business, except as otherwise defined in the Public Health Act;

F. "health facility" means a public hospital, profit or nonprofit private hospital, general or special hospital, outpatient facility, crisis triage center, freestanding birth center, adult daycare facility, nursing home, intermediate care facility, assisted living facility, boarding home not under the control of an institution of higher learning, child care facility, shelter care home, diagnostic and treatment center, rehabilitation center, infirmary, community mental health center that serves both children and adults or adults only, residential treatment center that serves persons up to twenty-one years of age, community mental health center that serves only persons up to twenty-one years of age and day treatment center that serves persons up to twenty-one years of age or a health service organization operating as a freestanding hospice or a home health agency. The designation of these entities as health facilities is only for the purposes of definition in the Public Health Act and does not imply that a freestanding hospice or a home health agency is considered a health facility for the purposes of other provisions of state or federal laws. "Health facility" also includes those facilities that, by federal regulation, must be licensed by the state to obtain or maintain full or partial, permanent or temporary federal funding. It does not include the offices and treatment rooms of licensed private practitioners;

G. "screening" means a preliminary procedure, including a test or examination, that:

(1) may require further investigation; and

(2) can identify individuals with unrecognized health risk factors or asymptomatic disease conditions in populations;

H. "secretary" means:

(1) the secretary of health;

(2) the secretary of children, youth and families as to residential treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, community mental health centers that serve only persons up to twenty-one years of age, day treatment centers that serve persons up to twenty-one years of age, shelter care homes and those outpatient facilities that are also community-based behavioral health facilities serving only persons up to twenty-one years of age; or

(3) the secretary of early childhood education and care for child care facilities; and

I. "test" means any diagnostic or investigative analysis or medical procedure that determines the presence of, absence of or exposure to a condition of public health importance or its precursor in an individual.

NMS § 24-1-2

1953 Comp., § 12-34-2, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 359, § 2; 1977, ch. 253, § 39; 1979, ch. 25, § 1; 1981, ch. 171, § 10; 1983, ch. 112, § 1; 1987, ch. 27, § 1; 1996, ch. 35, § 1; 1999, ch. 165, § 1; 2003, ch. 284, § 1; 2007, ch. 325, § 6; 2007, ch. 326, § 1; 2015, ch. 61, § 1; 2015, ch. 153, § 1; 2017, ch. 87, § 4.

Amended by 2022, c. 30,s. 5, eff. 7/1/2022.

Amended by 2018, c. 34,s. 1, eff. 3/1/2018.

Amended by 2017, c. 87,s. 4, eff. 6/16/2017.

Amended by 2015, c. 153,s. 1, eff. 6/19/2015.

Amended by 2015, c. 61,s. 1, eff. 6/19/2015.