A JOINT MEMORIAL

RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HOSPITALS AND THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO WORK THERE FOR THE COUNTLESS HOURS OF CARE THEY SKILLFULLY AND COMPASSIONATELY PROVIDE TO THEIR FELLOW NEW MEXICANS.

WHEREAS, university hospital, the children's psychiatric center, Carrie Tingley hospital, the university of New Mexico psychiatric center and the children's hospital of New Mexico comprise the university of New Mexico hospitals; and

WHEREAS, together, the hospitals care for more than one hundred fifty thousand New Mexicans each year; and

WHEREAS, the hospitals offer health care services to all New Mexicans regardless of their ability to pay and provided more than one hundred one million dollars ($101,000,000) in charity care last year; and

WHEREAS, the hospitals care for New Mexicans from every county in the state; and

WHEREAS, in 2002, the hospitals admitted twenty-five thousand patients from around the state and experienced nearly six hundred ninety-five thousand clinic visits; and

WHEREAS, more than three thousand seven hundred babies were delivered to New Mexico parents at the hospitals last year; and

WHEREAS, the hospitals maintain the state's only level one trauma center, which treated more than fifteen thousand trauma patients last year; and

WHEREAS, the children's psychiatric center cares for New Mexico's children suffering from the most devastating mental illnesses; and

WHEREAS, Carrie Tingley hospital provides outstanding specialized care for children with musculo-skeletal and other diseases; and

WHEREAS, the cancer research and treatment center treats more than two thousand new victims of cancer each year; and

WHEREAS, the hospitals serve as the state's only teaching hospitals and provide an educational setting for three hundred medical students, four hundred fifty medical residents, five hundred nursing students, two hundred pharmacy students and two hundred thirty allied health professions students; and

WHEREAS, the hospitals' lifeguard helicopter is one of the nation's busiest hospital helicopters; and

WHEREAS, the hospitals' fixed wing service flies more critical patients each month and a larger variety of patients than any other fixed wing service in the United States;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the university of New Mexico hospitals and the men and women who work there be recognized for their countless hours of skillful and compassionate service to their fellow New Mexicans; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the members of the board of regents of the

university of New Mexico.