Town Halls Scheduled for New 96-Bed UNM Hospital Project

The Board of Regents at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, and the lead­er­ship of the UNM Health Sci­ences Cen­ter (HSC) and UNM Hos­pi­tal (UNMH), today announced the sched­ule for three Pub­lic Town Hall meet­ings promised last week to allow for pub­lic com­ment on the 96-bed project await­ing State Board of Finance approval.

“The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico lead­er­ship strongly sup­ports the build­ing of a new 96-bed hos­pi­tal facil­ity to relieve over­crowd­ing and an exist­ing severe short­age of hos­pi­tal beds at UNMH,” said Billy Sparks, exec­u­tive direc­tor, HSC Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Mar­ket­ing. “Too many patients who need to be admit­ted have to wait for up to 36 hours for a bed. UNMH needs to be able to bet­ter serve its patients and be pre­pared for any unseen emergencies.”

The Sched­ule
Tues­day, Oct. 2, 6–7:30 p.m. – Indian Pueblo Cul­tural Cen­ter
2401 12th Street NW, Chaco I and II

Wednes­day, Oct. 3, 6–7:30 p.m. – Jew­ish Com­mu­nity Cen­ter
5520 Wyoming Blvd. NE, Audi­to­rium A

Thurs­day, Oct. 4, 6–7:30 p.m. – Alam­osa Com­mu­nity Cen­ter
6900 Gon­za­les Rd SW, Room A

These Town Halls will allow for addi­tional pub­lic input and give our physi­cians and lead­ers a chance to inter­act with the com­mu­nity, respond to ques­tions and edu­cate the pub­lic on the ongo­ing mis­sions and respon­si­bil­i­ties of UNM’s Level One Trauma and National Insti­tute of Health Can­cer Cen­ter des­ig­na­tions, UNMH’s Stroke Cen­ter and children’s ser­vices, and New Mexico’s only teach­ing hospital.

Health Sci­ences Cen­ter lead­er­ship will dis­cuss the types of activ­i­ties that will occur in the facil­ity and the cur­rent need for addi­tional hos­pi­tal beds and ser­vices. The Town Halls will be held in com­mu­nity cen­ters in the Bernalillo County area.

The Town Halls also will pro­vide an oppor­tu­nity for addi­tional pub­lic input. UNMH doc­tors, HSC lead­er­ship and uni­ver­sity offi­cials will dis­cuss the imme­di­ate need for addi­tional hos­pi­tal beds to care for our cur­rent patients.

The national rec­om­men­da­tion for the daily hos­pi­tal cen­sus is 75 per­cent of capac­ity. UNMH is aver­ag­ing more than 90 per­cent of capac­ity, and many days 99 per­cent capacity.

The Adult Wing Project has been approved in open, pub­lic forums by the UNM Hos­pi­tal Board of Trustees, the HSC Board of Direc­tors, the UNM Board of Regents Finance and Facil­i­ties Com­mit­tee and the UNM Board of Regents. The New Mex­ico State Depart­ment of Higher Edu­ca­tion also has approved the plans. UNMH is not request­ing state or fed­eral funds for this project. HSC has known this day would come and has planned accordingly.

“We look for­ward to receiv­ing final approval from the State Board of Finance for this very impor­tant project,” said Sparks. “In the next month we will share with the com­mu­nity the rea­sons for this project. The pub­lic Town Halls will let us hear the addi­tional com­ments and con­cerns of the com­mu­nity as part of our ongo­ing com­mit­ment at the UNM Health Sci­ences Cen­ter to main­tain trans­parency and respond to the community.”

Media con­tact: Billy Sparks (505) 272‑8827; cell: (505) 401‑1755; email: WSparks@salud.unm.edu