The University of New Mexico Hospital has opened its new Critical Care Tower (CCT), a 570,000-square-foot facility designed to enhance emergency and intensive care services in the state. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place just days before the CCT is set to receive its first patients.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham attended the event, highlighting the importance of the new facility for rural health care delivery. "The UNM Hospital Critical Care Tower is the instrument for making sure that we have good rural health care delivery," she said. "Whatever emergency comes our way, this campus, this university, this state will be ready."
The CCT includes an expanded Adult Emergency Department with 68 beds and increases the total number of intensive care beds at UNM Hospital to 96. Additional features include a second helipad, a surgical suite with 18 operating rooms, and advanced medical technology.
UNM Hospital CEO Kate Becker recognized the efforts of those involved in constructing the tower. “It’s been incredible to see all the pieces of the CCT come to life—from the installation of high-tech medical equipment to the hanging of beautiful art pieces that now brighten up the walls,” Becker said. “So many of you have worked incredibly hard to prepare the CCT for each other and for patients and their families. The opening of the Critical Care Tower is possible because of your commitment to improving health care services for all.”
Mike Richards, executive vice president at UNM Health Sciences and CEO of UNM Health System, also addressed attendees. “What you see around you is the culmination of years of dedication, diligence, and vision from countless people,” he said. “The Critical Care Tower is the largest expansion of our clinical delivery system in 15 years.”
Richards noted that beyond patient care, the expansion supports future growth in education for programs at UNM School of Medicine as well as pharmacy, nursing, and public health. “We will expand our reach through research in the years and decades to come, and our students and trainees will learn with cutting-edge technology in spaces designed for both patient care and medical education,” he said.
As part of its role as New Mexico’s largest teaching hospital, UNM Hospital designed ample training space within the CCT. The fourth floor—called The Sky Campus—is dedicated exclusively to staff use and includes lounges for meals, private rooms for resident physicians, thousands of lockers for personal storage, and meeting rooms intended for educational activities.
UNM President Garnett S. Stokes described what makes this space unique: “This is a special place, the embodiment of the kind of health care providers and educators we are—as well as the kind we still aspire to be,” she said. “It is also a welcoming place, providing convenient and more supportive access to health care, while also making visitors and our Lobo health care providers feel more at ease—and, hopefully, more at home.”
On October 5 at 5 a.m., all adult emergency services will move into the new tower. Current patients from older parts of UNM Hospital will be transferred into updated emergency departments and intensive care units within CCT—a process that has been practiced by staff multiple times ahead of opening day.
Since construction ended on August 1st, staff have been moving into their new workspaces inside CCT while preparing through simulations ahead of patient transfers.
For further details about departments moving into CCT or staffing efforts related to its opening can be found on HSC Newsroom articles such as "What Departments Are Moving into UNM Hospital’s Top-of-the-Line Critical Care Tower?", "Building Blocks of the Future: Leaving Room for Growth in the UNM Hospital Critical Care Tower", among others.
