EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR ST. VINCENT HOSPITAL IN SANTA FE.

WHEREAS, St. Vincent hospital is New Mexico's oldest hospital and has served the northern region since 1865 by providing compassionate, quality health care to all members of its community, regardless of ability to pay; and

WHEREAS, St. Vincent provided fourteen million three hundred thousand dollars ($14,300,000) in care in fiscal year 2002 to the uninsured and under-insured, and more than six million dollars ($6,000,000) in direct care and preventive services to regional health partners and the entire community; and

WHEREAS, more than twenty-two percent of the two hundred fifty thousand people in St. Vincent Hospital's twenty thousand square mile service area live in poverty, and consequently more than thirty percent of the patients treated at St. Vincent Hospital are uninsured; and

WHEREAS, the health of a community depends upon the physical, emotional and mental health of all its people, and a full range of health care services must remain available and accessible to everyone;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the important contribution that the administration, physicians, employees and volunteers of St. Vincent Hospital make to the well-being of the people of northern New Mexico be commended; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that St. Vincent Hospital be acknowledged as a valued community asset; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the necessity to protect northern New Mexico's community health care safety net, including direct care and preventive services, be recognized; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that helping St. Vincent Hospital fulfill its compassionate mission be supported; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the secretaries of health and human services, the mayor of the city of Santa Fe, the Santa Fe city council, St. Vincent hospital and the St. Vincent hospital foundation.