THE GOOD SHIP; UNM Hospital Will Dedicate Its Huge Addition on Saturday
By Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal BY WINTHROP QUIGLEY Journal Staff Writer
From the south side of Lomas, the new University of New Mexico Hospital resembles a moored cruise ship, so staff on the main campus have dubbed it the "Good Ship Richardson."
As in first lady Barbara and Gov. Bill Richardson, after whom UNM named the 478,748-square-foot addition. The six-story Richardson Pavilion will house UNM’s Children’s Hospital, a maternity center, a bigger emergency department and much, much more. It is triple the size of the existing UNM hospital.
The Good Ship Richardson will be dedicated at 11 a.m. Saturday. Patients are expected to start using the pavilion in May after state inspectors have certified she is seaworthy.
Ground was broken for the $233.8 million construction project, billed as one of the largest public projects in state history, in November 2004 and it is finishing pretty much on time and on budget.
"I’ve been here for a little more than 30 years," said Paul Roth, UNM executive vice president for health sciences and dean of the medical school. "I have to say this is one of the most significant events in the history of the medical school and in the history of UNMH."
The new hospital wing is a medical palace compared to the existing facility. Large windows brighten the interior. Wide hallways lead to wide stairwells. Patients and visitors use different elevators, improving patient privacy and safety. Ceilings are higher in the new wing and are full of the wiring and piping modern hospitals require.
Parents with hospitalized children will have space to relax. Kids will have a large play area that opens onto a patio with a big view of the mesa.
By design, colors on the ground floors are earth-toned, then evolve on higher floors until they suggest the sky. A dome in the children’s area is full of flashing lights, resembling stars.
The new emergency center on the ground floor will contain seven trauma and resuscitation beds, six isolation beds for patients with communicable diseases, 38 beds for adults, and a separate pediatric emergency center with 12 beds. The existing emergency room has patients lined up in hallways on gurneys for lack of space.
There will be 72 beds for intensive care, 15 rooms for labor and delivery and 24 rooms for post-partum mothers.
Carrie Tingley hospital will have 15 beds for young musculoskeletal and orthopedic patients. The children’s hospital will have 20 intensive care beds, 20 oncology beds and six pediatric surgical suites.
The project has had some controversy and detractors. At the groundbreaking ceremony in 2004, protesters said the facility would do little to improve primary and preventive care, especially for the poor and uninsured.
In naming the pavilion for the Richardsons, regents said they were recognizing the governor’s help securing financing for the project. Richardson backed an increase in cigarette taxes to support a $40 million bond issue.
Once the building opens, UNM will be on the hook for a $1.1 million mortgage payment every month. The mortgage was guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration.
An unsuccessful bidder from Utah in 2004 also questioned whether UNM had held improper discussions with The Jaynes Companies Inc., the Albuquerque builder that won the contract by teaming with J.E. Dunn Construction of Kansas City, Mo. UNM denied any improper pre- contract discussions. The Jaynes-Dunn team underbid Okland Construction of Salt Lake City by $100,000.
Regents also drew flack for requiring contractors to use labor unions to hire some of the workers used on the project.
The 11 a.m. dedication on Saturday is for UNM Health Sciences Center staff and invited guests.
The Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion
479,748-square-foot, six-story addition to the University of New Mexico Hospital
New emergency center with 12 pediatric beds
New imaging center with one magnetic resonance imaging machine and two CT scans
72-bed adult critical care unit, including burn and trauma, neuroscience and medical intensive care services
Maternity center with 15 high-risk ante-partum rooms, 24 postpartum rooms and 15 labor and delivery rooms
Children’s hospital with 20-bed pediatric intensive care unit, a 20-bed pediatric oncology unit, a 54-bed neonatal unit and a dedicated pediatric surgical suite
(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.