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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Taylor

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/18/08

HB 121

SHORT TITLE San Juan Medical Center & UNM Affiliation

SB

ANALYST Propst

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$150.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Department of Health (DOH)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 121, Making an Appropriation to Fund a Medical Education Affiliation between the

San Juan Regional Medical Center and the University of New Mexico, appropriates $150

thousand from the general fund to the Department of Finance and Administration for the purpose

of funding a medical affiliation between the San Juan Regional Medical Center and the School of

Medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $150 thousand contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the Community Health program at University of New Mexico Health Sciences

Center (UNM HSC), HB 121 is the result of a December 2007 meeting organized by San Juan

House Bill 121 – Page

2

Regional Medical Center (SJRMC) that included representatives from the Medical, Nursing and

Pharmacy colleges at the UNM HSC, representatives of the practice community, San Juan

College, and others to explore strategies for building a collaboration between the hospital and

practice community and the UNM HSC. The meeting resulted in several outcome

recommendations:

.

establishing a Family Medicine Residency at SJRMC;

.

establishing SJRMC as a training site for various health professional students from UNM;

.

establishing a dental residency training site in San Juan County;

.

expansion of on-site training for different health careers (Master in Public Health

program (MPH); Registered Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-to-BSN)

degree program) at San Juan College linked with UNM Extended University;

.

plan for Farmington to be an expansion site for the Bachelor of Arts in Pharmacy training

center;

.

establishment of a Health Extension Rural Office in Farmington to help coordinate the

link between the community priority health needs and UNM HSC resources;

.

expansion of telehealth linkage between SJRMC and UNM Hospital to provide instant

access to scarce subspecialty resources;

.

participation of SJRMC in public health/medicine activities as part of affiliation

including participation in statewide 24/7 nurse advice line for New Mexico; and

.

signing of an MOA between SJRMC and UNM HSC to act on all the above points.

The goals of HB 121 are to:

•

have SJRMC become an academically affiliated institution of the UNM HSC;

•

to attract and retain a greater number of health professionals in San Juan County and the

region; and

•

to improve access to care

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

This request was not submitted by UNM HSC to the New Mexico Higher Education Department

for review and is not included in the Department’s funding recommendation for FY09.

HB121 does not include performance measures; however, the according to the Higher Education

Department, UNM HSC indicated the following outcomes:

.

establishment of at least 10 Family Medicine residency or Fellow rotations at San Juan

Regional Medical Center;

.

expansion of nursing education and initiating MPH program planning in Farmington;

.

plan completed to establish BA/Pharmacy Training Center;

.

full participation in NurseAdvice New Mexico telephone line;

.

establishment of a Health Extension Rural Office; and

.

completion and signing of a MOA.

WEP/nt