SRMC is expanding and improving behavioral health services in response to long-standing access gaps, ever-increasing demand, and limited capacity. This requires a dramatic shift in how services are delivered and an expanded range of behavioral health supports across Sandoval County. 

Our proposed mobile crisis services program will respond to people in crisis Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. This program will require hiring behavioral health responders and a clinical supervisor working as an interdisciplinary team to support people whose lives are disrupted by mental illness, behavioral disturbances, substance use, or difficulty functioning in the community. Responders will provide suicide intervention, verbal de-escalation, screening, coping-skill guidance, Narcan administration, and crisis case management, using evidence-based, recovery-oriented care while also strengthening county-wide capacity through behavioral health education. 

$800,000 annually of philanthropic support is requested to fund this this new and important initiative.

This Center would facilitate UNM academic and research activity to advance best practices in behavioral health services for Sandoval County residents. It also would consolidate the outpatient behavioral health services of SMRC and UNMH under one roof with: 

• Outpatient behavioral health services 

• Psychiatric emergency services for adult and pediatric patients 

• Medium-acuity crisis stabilization services and 23-hour observation unit 

• Group therapy services 

• New outpatient services such as Medication-Assisted Treatment Clinics  

$40 million of philanthropic funding would realize this flagship transformational initiative.

SRMC currently has limited surgical oncology services and no medical oncology services, including palliative care, which means that Sandoval County patients with a cancer diagnosis travel outside of the county for surgery and ongoing chemotherapy care. SRMC also wants to focus on skin cancer screening, as the incidence of melanoma is rising in Sandoval County. Although SRMC partners with referring providers, there is no formal screening program. 

Advancing these services is a threefold initiative: 

• SRMC Infusion Center: By bringing services closer to home, SRMC will be able to deliver a more patient-focused option for patients and families. This conveniently located infusion center also will reduce stress for the patient and family during an already trying time.  

• Palliative care facilities: Palliative care and palliative medicine focus on providing relief of suffering (physical, emotional, social, and spiritual) to improve the quality of life for patient living with serious illness and their families. Palliative care is provided by a team of palliative care doctors, advanced practice nurses, social workers, spiritual care providers, and others who collaborate with a patient’s other doctors to provide extra support. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness and can be provided alongside curative treatment.  

• Dermatology mobile screening clinic: Expanding SRMC oncology services will require a mobile screening clinic for dermatology to assess for skin cancer. Many patients in low-income settings lack access to adequate public transportation or cannot take leave from work to receive preventive healthcare. Mobile cancer screening can save lives by bringing provider services to the community. For the few communities that have health centers, SRMC would set up screening at existing facilities in tribal and non-tribal communities. For communities that do not have healthcare facilities, SRMC could offer screenings where people already congregate: senior centers, schools, churches, etc. Philanthropic funding would also support the addition of provider and staff coverage to support a mobile strategy. 

$1 million of philanthropic funding is requested to advance oncology services at SRMC.

SRMC has a unique alignment with UNM Health Sciences’ Schools and Colleges, including the School of Medicine’s Family Medicine and Internal Medicine Departments. However, SRMC Primary Care is not distributed throughout Sandoval County, resulting in increased use of emergency department services. There also is an insufficient referral network from aligned PCPs to SRMC. The provision of more internal medicine providers with a focus on geriatric medicine and family medicine will help us better align our services with the future needs of our communities.  

Invest in our human capital: Recruit advanced practice providers to augment physicians’ availability, hire Community Health Workers from within Sandoval County to address SRMC Primary Care patients’ social determinants of health (SDoH), and create an endowed faculty position and an executive director leader to oversee primary care strategy in Sandoval County. 

$1.3 million of philanthropic support annually will fund this important work.

Create more primary care clinics across Sandoval County: Specifically, three more Primary Care Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs) in Sandoval County in the 550 Corridor, Rio Rancho North, and Corrales. Each clinic will be 14,000-15,000 square feet, with 21 exam rooms, offering family medicine, internal medicine, behavioral health, general radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, case management/social work, financial, and radiology services. In addition, we want to create innovative models for primary care delivery as it expands in Sandoval County.  

$24 million of philanthropic support will fund this important initiative.

Create a new Center of Innovation and Excellence in Primary Care at the Rio Rancho campus, which will: 

• Allow SRMC to create a comprehensive program to measurably improve the health of Sandoval County residents 

• Become home to the current SRMC Primary Care PCMH clinic 

• House an innovation center studying and applying latest advances in primary care 

• Provide new space for clinical, academic, and research activity in primary care 

• Offer primary care academic and research opportunities, including an evidence-based educational/counseling intervention model to expand to each middle and high school in the county  

• Partner with HSC’s Office of Community Health for Health Extension offerings, which would require stipends and project funds to a Partner HERO in each Pueblo, each checkerboard Native American community, and each rural town/community in Sandoval County. These communities would select people to serve as a link between the community, health, and social priorities and resources at HSC and UNM’s main campus. 

• Offer advanced geriatric medicine partnerships with the senior centers, assisted living, and nursing home facilities across Sandoval County – as well as develop SmartHomes with the UNM School of Architecture and Planning and School of Engineering for seniors “aging in place”  

$21 million of philanthropic funding would realize this transformational initiative.

SRMC’s strategic direction for Surgical Services and Digestive Health includes these priorities: 

Develop a multi-disciplinary Digestive Health Center of Excellence (COE) that includes gastroenterology, general surgery, and bariatric surgery capabilities, plus an on-campus ambulatory surgery center in conjunction with our COE programs such as orthopedics and digestive health.  

• Developing this outpatient center will free up the main OR and procedure spaces for inpatient surgeries, acute surgical/trauma services, and inpatient procedural consults.  

• We also aim to double our current GI procedure area to include three more GI suites, resulting in a total of 6 procedure suites. The recruitment of additional gastroenterologists and general surgeons will be indispensable to the COE’s success.  

$22 million of philanthropic funding would create this transformational Center.

Add robotic equipment. The benefits of robotic surgery include less blood loss, shorter hospital stays, and quicker recovery. Surgeons who have performed a high volume of these procedures typically deliver optimal outcomes. Robotic equipment also can help SRMC recruit more surgeons who want to work at an organization that have this technology. Specifically, this equipment would need to include the following: 

• Endoscopy Center: GI4000 EUS (2) ($45,844) 

• Endoscopy Center: OER Elite Scope Re-processor ($37,089) 

• Radiology (General): Fluoroscopy Machine/Renovation ($850,000) 

• Radiology (Ultrasound): Ultrasound Machine (2) ($360,000) 

• Radiology: C-arm ($230,754) 

• Radiology: Ultrasound Machine ($180,000) 

• Add EUS machine for GI procedures and expansion 

$1.8 million of philanthropic funding would be needed to provide this vital equipment.

Our other campaign priorities are to: 

• Double the space available for GI procedure suites 

• Acquire a DaVinci Robot for general surgery 

• Provide a Stryker Mako robot for the outpatient surgery center 

$1.1 million would be required to realize these initiatives.