Construction on UNM Hospital’s $842M critical care tower complete, officials say

Construction is complete on the University of New Mexico Hospital’s new critical care tower, which officials say will boost the crowded hospital’s capacity to care for its sickest patients when it opens this fall.

The expansion will add, in part, 24 intensive care beds, a new adult emergency department, two operating rooms and more MRI and CT scanners, UNM Health Sciences Chief Operating Officer Michael Chicarelli said.

“It’s been a long process, and so we’re really excited to be able to offer it so we can continue to deliver care for New Mexicans,” Chicarelli said.

The new facility, set to open in October, will also add 400 new staff positions to the hospital. Despite the shortage of health care workers across the state, Chicarelli said UNM is “on a pretty good trajectory” to fill all the open positions.

Over budget and delayed, the expansion is much needed. New Mexico is facing a significant doctor shortage, with projections indicating a deficit of 2,118 physicians, exacerbated by a physician-to-patient ratio that is 16% worse than the national average, according to the Cicero Institute.

New Mexico also has the oldest physician workforce in the nation, with nearly 40% of the state’s doctors aged 60 or older and expected to retire by 2030, according to Think New Mexico.

“We know that the tower is going to open,” Chicarelli said. “We know that the care is going to be needed, and we’re going to have to have the people there to do it.”

UNMH is the only Level 1 trauma center in New Mexico, which means it is the only place in the state equipped to provide 24-hour in-house treatment and comprehensive care for the most severely injured patients.

It also means patients often face long wait times, because the hospital consistently operates at anywhere from 105% to 120% capacity, according to UNM Health Sciences spokesperson Brianna Mortensen.

The new tower, along with an expansion in class size at the UNM School of Medicine, is part of UNMH’s efforts to both increase patient care and train more doctors, said UNM Executive Vice President of Health Sciences Dr. Mike Richards during a state Legislative Finance Committee meeting in Albuquerque last month.

The developments are projected to boost the hospital’s inpatient care volume by about 70% in the next 10 years, Richards said.

Construction on the nine-story critical care tower began in 2021, though the project has been in planning stages since 2019. The tower comes with a price tag of $842 million, Chicarelli said, funded by $492 million from UNMH, a government-backed mortgage of $320 million and $30 million in state municipal bonds.

The opening comes about a year later than expected — Chicarelli told the Journal in 2021 that the tower would be ready to serve patients in October 2024. It also comes at a higher price than the $700 million it was expected to cost, which officials ascribe partly to global supply chain issues and higher material costs.

Hospital staff will spend the coming weeks moving operations to the new building before the tower opens to its first patients on Oct. 5, Chicarelli said.