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Thursday, November 18, 2004

Ground Broken on UNMH Wing Named After Richardsons

By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
    Gov. Bill Richardson donned a ceremonial hard hat Wednesday to help break ground on a $233.8 million University of New Mexico Hospital expansion named for him and his wife, Barbara.
    An estimated 400 construction workers will toil three years on the six-story Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion. It will house UNMH's Children's Hospital, emergency and maternity units.
    Richardson said he learned Tuesday that UNM regents planned to name the six-story wing in the couple's honor.
    "I'm flattered and honored that they chose to do this," Richardson said. Regents chose the name, he said. "They insisted."
    Richardson and others predicted the 447,000-square-foot expansion will help attract top professionals.
    "Economic development in New Mexico should be centered on our universities," Richardson told several hundred people who attended the groundbreaking.
    Two of the building's six floors will house UNM's Children's Hospital. The expansion also will add a maternity center, newborn intensive care, adult trauma and emergency units.
    The project will be funded by a $40 million bond issue backed by a 70-cent-a-pack cigarette tax increase approved in 2003 and $193.8 million in bonds issued this month by UNM.
    About 20 protesters with the Community Coalition for Health Care Access picketed the groundbreaking, demanding UNMH provide more services for indigent patients.
    Andru Ziwasimon, a local physician and activist, said the expansion will do little to improve primary and preventive care, particularly for the poor and uninsured.
    Phil Eaton, executive vice president of UNM's Health Sciences Center, responded that the new wing is symbolic of New Mexico's commitment to providing access to the state's poorest and most critically ill.
    The project will increase the number of patient beds by 18 percent from 391 to 461, said Steve McKernan, UNMH chief executive officer.