The University of New Mexico Hospitals have selected a team to initiate the development plan for an adult acute-care replacement hospital on the UNM campus.
Albuquerque-based FBT Architects are partnering with HDR, an international architecture and engineering firm, to help determine the scope, space and staging requirements for the project, which will eventually replace the older portions of the existing hospital.
The UNM Board of Regents approved the planning contract in February. The team, which was selected through a competitive process, is expected to submit its development plan within six months. At that point it will be submitted to university governance for approval of a second contract for design architects.
“The medical and hospital staff are engaged in this planning phase with the goal of being able to provide improved access for our patients,” said UNM Hospitals CEO Steve McKernan. “This process will enable us to plan on bringing the best practices of academic medical centers to New Mexico.”
Paul B. Roth, MD, UNM chancellor for health sciences and CEO of the UNM Health System, hailed the selection of the planning team.
“We are pleased to be taking this important step toward meeting our patients’ needs,” Roth said. “We look forward to reviewing the team’s recommendations and moving ahead with this project.”
Roth said Michael Richards, MD, the health system’s executive physician-in-chief, will lead a steering committee of medical and hospital staff to provide input into the planning process.
UNM leaders have said the existing facility, parts of which were built in the 1950s, is overcrowded and inadequate to meet the needs of a modern teaching hospital.