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Home Divisions Health Improvement

Division of Health Improvement

The Department of Health’s Division of Health Improvement (DHI) is the regulatory entity providing compliance oversight for the following areas.

  • Health Facility Licensing and Certification licenses health facilities such as: Acute and Continuing care, long-term care, assisted living home care and hospice, free standing birth centers, community mental health centers and other facilities.
  • Community-Based Programs for the Developmental Disabilities Waiver, Medically Fragile Waiver and the Mi Via Waiver.
  • Conducts investigations of Abuse, Neglect & Exploitation for licensed health facilities and home and community-based Medicaid waiver programs.
  • Operates the Caregivers Criminal History Screening Program (CCHSP) which provides criminal background checks on potential caregivers.
  • Operates the Employee Abuse Registry (EAR) also known as, the Consolidated Online Employee Abuse Registry (COR) which provides background checks for all caregivers, ensuring they have not been disqualified by a substantiated case of ANE. Individuals placed on the EAR are not eligible for hire as caregivers.
  • Operates the Certified Nurse Aide Registry (NAR) and Training program.
  • Certifies all clinical laboratories operating in New Mexico meet health and safety requirements.

What are you looking for today? DHI FAQs:

Special Announcement regarding Background Checks:

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety will be transitioning to a new fingerprint supported background checks provider, IDEMIA, effective May 1, 2023. Electronic fingerprinting can still be completed with Gemalto through the end of the day April 28, 2023. Effective immediately, please mail hard copy fingerprint cards to:

IndentoGo Cardscan Department: New Mexico Program
340 Seven Springs Way, Suite 250
Brentwood, TN 37027

Additional information is available at Caregivers Criminal History Screening.

Voting Rights for Long Term Care Residents

Background Checks for Community Based Waiver Service Providers and Support Caregivers

Effective January 1, 2022, via this notice, all new hired “caregiver” employees of licensed health facilities and home and community-based Medicaid waiver programs who are defined as a “caregiver” (see 29-17-4 NMSA and 7.1.12.2 NMAC) and hired on or after January 1, 2022, shall be in compliance with 29-17-2 et seq and 7.1.12 NMAC and complete a background check at time of hire.

See memo Background Check Supplement for complete details regarding background checks for caregivers hired between April 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021 Any caregiver hired during the public health emergency and has not had a fingerprint background check must come into compliance by March 31, 2022.

Enforcement Activities

DHI enforcement activities include:

Health facilities and community based waiver programs found out of compliance may be subject to civil monetary penalties or other sanctions as authorized by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or state law.

Organizational Structure

The Division of Health Improvement consists of staff members located in 4 field offices across New Mexico with a central office in Santa Fe. Our staff have a variety of professional and educational backgrounds and experiences. Many are licensed as psychologists, nurses, physicians, life safety code engineers, architects, social workers and other related fields, who hold bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. We are organized into the following three areas.

  1. Health Facility Licensing and Certification – Consists of District Operations which conducts surveys, and Program Operations which administers the facility licenses and services such as the Nurse Aide Registry.
  2. Community Based Waiver Programs – Consists of Incident Management and Quality Management.
  3. Director’s Office – Consists of DHI Administrative Services, Human Resources and the Office of Policy, Planning & Performance Improvement.

Please see the Human Resources section of our website for a list of Job Opportunities with Division of Health Improvement and obtain our latest organizational chart.


Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Has your health facility recently been surveyed by the Division of Health Improvement? If so, we would like to know how we performed.


Regulations

Please visit the Regulations page for a complete listing of the rules and regulations which govern the majority of what we do.

The Department of Health’s Division of Health Improvement has issued a new regulation 7.7.3 NMAC - Requirements for Rural Emergency Hospitals


New Emergency Rule and Pending Regulations

There are no new emergency rules or pending rules.

Be sure to visit our Regulations page to view recent updates made to existing rules.


Notice of Public Hearing

There are no public hearings scheduled at this time.

Quick Links

Community Programs

Community Provider Survey Report of Findings

Community Provider Survey Report of Findings

Field Tools

Please visit the Field Tools page to explore the various field tools such as Case Management, Living Care and Arrangements, and Community Inclusion.

ANE Training for Community Providers

Licensed Health Facilities

Search Licensed Health Facilities Survey Report of Findings

Search Medicare Nursing Home Compare

Nursing Home Compare provides details on nursing homes across the country. This includes nursing home inspection results, staffing levels, enforcement actions that the federal government have taken against the nursing homes and how well nursing home residents were treated in specific areas of care.