The New Mexico Health Information System (HIS), administered by the New Mexico Health Policy Commission (HPC), was established in 1989 pursuant to the Health Information System Act, NMSA 1978 Section 24-14A-1 thru Section 24-14A-10. The purpose of the HIS is to collect, analyze, and disseminate health data and information for use by public and private entities in health planning and policy development. The HPC gives the highest priority to the collection of data to support informed health care decision-making and purchases throughout the state.

Pursuant to the HIS Act, the HPC maintains the Hospital Inpatient Discharge Database (HIDD). These reports are based on data generated from the HIDD. The hospital inpatient diagnoses and procedures contained in the database were coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9 CM). General and specialty hospitals in the State are annually required to report hospital inpatient discharge data to the HPC. Federal facilities are not required to report HIDD data to the HPC. Therefore, data from Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities, military hospitals and the Veteran’s Administration Hospital are not included. However, the HPC is exploring ways to access IHS and Veteran’s Administration Hospital data.

An inpatient discharge occurs when a patient is admitted overnight to a hospital and leaves that hospital. Thus, an individual who is transferred from hospital A to hospital B would be included in the discharges from hospital A with a second discharge from hospital B.