Round Rio Rancho

The Sandoval Regional Medical Center (SRMC) held a grand opening and ribbon cutting celebration for the public the weekend of July 8 and 9, 2012. On Saturday, a dozen dignitaries spoke to the assembled crowd including Senator Jeff Bingaman, facility President and CEO Kevin Rogols, other hospital administrators, county officials, and representatives of local pueblos. Tom Swisstack, the Mayor of Rio Rancho also spoke, but what was interesting was the number of speakers who lauded the Mayor for his leadership about ten years ago (when he was a State Representative) which resulted in the new facility eventually being built in Rio Rancho.

The new hospital comprises about 200,000 square feet, with 72 beds for inpatient care, 48 beds for medical and surgical care, a 12 bed ICU, 12 beds for senior behavioral health and a 13 bed emergency room. The hospital is part of University of New Mexico Hospital, and will be the only teaching hospital in the county. The equipment is state of the art, including a surgical robot, imaging equipment capable of producing very fine detail, talking beds (which speak a couple dozen languages) and so much more.

When the project was begun, Sandoval County was the largest county in the western United States without a hospital. Presbyterian Rust Medical Center opened just a few months earlier a few miles south (and also in Rio Rancho), so now there are two hospitals where not long ago there were none.