New Mexico

Reporting Error from the New Mexico's Largest Laboratory Corrected: Thousands of Missing Results Restored

In 2024, the New Mexico Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (NM CLPPP) uncovered a data gap while conducting routine case investigations. Staff noticed that families reported follow-up blood lead tests that had not been received by the New Mexico Department of Health, despite being processed by the state's largest laboratory. Further investigation revealed a system-wide coding error that failed to capture certain low-level test results. Because all blood lead test results in New Mexico are required to be reported, this issue meant the program was missing years of important surveillance data.

In response, NM CLPPP acted quickly. The program manager and data analyst partnered directly with the laboratory to identify the source of the problem—a reporting rule that excluded non-numeric results such as "<1." Once identified, the teams worked collaboratively for over a month to securely transmit and process the missing data in manageable batches, carefully deduplicating records to ensure accuracy and data integrity. Their efforts not only resolved the immediate issue but strengthened communication channels with the laboratory's compliance team to prevent future gaps.

As a result, NM CLPPP restored 18,199 previously missing blood lead test results spanning nearly seven and a half years, an average of 2,400 additional records per year now captured in the state's surveillance system. By identifying and correcting this large-scale reporting error, New Mexico strengthened the completeness and reliability of its lead surveillance data, ensuring children with high blood lead levels are accurately identified and connected to follow-up care. This work highlights the essential role public health departments play in safeguarding data quality, improving accountability, and protecting children from the harmful effects of lead exposure.