A decade-long wait is finally over, as the University of New Mexico Hospital Critical Care Tower is set to begin receiving patients on Sunday, Oct. 5. University and Hospital leadership alongside state and federal authorities gathered on Friday, Sept. 26 for a celebration and official ribbon cutting ceremony.
The 570,000-square-foot tower features a 68 bed expansion to the Adult Emergency Department, 96 new intensive care beds, a surgical suite with 18 operating rooms and a second helipad.
UNM Hospital is the state’s largest teaching hospital and only level I trauma center. The fourth floor of the Critical Care Tower is inaccessible to patients and visitors and will serve as a multi-use space with private rooms, lockers and eating lounges; but much of the space will also be dedicated to meeting rooms for educational purposes.
University President Garnett Stokes discussed the art adorning its building, the struggles faced in the design process with the many changes made, and the difficulties the hospitals faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The most important thing about the facility isn’t its square footage, or even the amazing state of the art equipment it houses. What matters most is that it serves our community,” Stokes said.
There have been more than 1,000 team members already hired to staff the tower and more are always being recruited, CEO of the UNM Health System and Executive Vice-President of UNM Health Sciences Center, Dr. Mike Richards said.
New Mexico is a state that faces a shortage of physicians and health professionals, with 32 of the 33 the state’s counties considered health professional shortage areas, according to the Cirero Institute.
“We appreciate that New Mexico struggles with a health care workforce shortage much like the rest of the United States. One of the most important things that happens in this facility is that it’s part of the University’s health education mission. We will be able to train doctors, nurses, other healthcare professionals, not just for the University, but for all of New Mexico and all of the health systems across New Mexico,” Richards said.
Richards said that as the critical care tower builds its capacity, they can also better support other providers and health care delivery systems in the state. He also said it would strengthen New Mexico’s ability to train the “next generation of healthcare professionals,” and called the tower an investment in both education and the future of healthcare for the entire state.
“The true measure of today is not really the cutting of the ribbon, but it will occur in a few days, on Oct. 5, when the first patients come through the school, where they will receive outstanding world class care by compassionate healthcare providers in a spectacular facility that matches what they can do,” Richards said.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she believes there is still more work to do in the state’s healthcare industry and improvement is always possible. Lujan Grisham said she hopes to tackle that issue during the special session of the legislature she called earlier this month, set to begin on Oct. 1.
“We don’t always agree on the path, but we always agree on the outcomes, always, and the notion that this is the instrument for making sure that we have good world healthcare delivery has been part of that cornerstone foundation; and there’s no daylight between all of us — Republicans and Democrats — about making sure that that happens in this legislature,” Lujan Grisham said.
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Lujan Grisham spoke about the challenges faced and resilience exhibited from COVID-19 by the state and University.
“This is a state that builds rocket ships while they’re flying all the time,” Lujan Grisham said.
There are 3,000 Opportunity Scholarship students in the health sciences at UNM, and the expansion is expected to help improve the University’s health education as well, Lujan Grisham said.
Javier Martínez (D-Bernalillo), the Speaker of the State House of Representatives, shared his own personal relationship with UNM Hospitals, with both of his children being born in the facilities and his advocacy for the expansion since 2013.
“Just a few months ago, I lost my father, and he received world class care at this institution. He passed away peacefully right across the way. So that cycle of life I’ve experienced over the last 13 years, the good and the not so good, and it’s happened within the walls of this incredible institution, under the care of incredible providers, from the specialists all the way to the janitors. And I could not be more proud to stand here and congratulate our University, our president, our vice-president, our regents, our governor, for our steadfast leadership,” Martínez said.
Frank Cassidy, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said that HUD provided a $320 million mortgage under the FHA Mortgage Insurance Program to help finance the project.
“We still need more healthcare. We need bigger, bolder investments. We cannot shy away — lean in New Mexico; we have a long way to go,” Lujan Grisham said.
