SENATE MEMORIAL 14

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Eric G. Griego

A MEMORIAL

CALLING FOR THE SENATE TO RECOGNIZE THE VALUE AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEW MEXICO PROVIDED BY FIRST CHOICE COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE, INCORPORATED.

     WHEREAS, First Choice community healthcare, incorporated, is a federally qualified, joint commission-accredited health care delivery system that has provided primary medical, dental and behavioral health services to underserved and uninsured populations of the mid-Rio Grande valley of central Mexico for the past forty years; and

     WHEREAS, the communities served by First Choice lie within a five-county area that is the statistically most populated metropolitan area in the state, making First Choice the medical home to seven hundred thousand people; and

     WHEREAS, First Choice is governed by a community-based, volunteer board of directors that reflects the ethnic, racial and economic diversity of the communities in which First Choice is located, and more than fifty percent of the board members are users of First Choice services; and

     WHEREAS, First Choice operates eight health centers strategically located in Albuquerque, Los Lunas, Belen and Edgewood and one school-based health clinic located at Rio Grande high school in the south valley of Albuquerque; and

     WHEREAS, First Choice provides primary medical and dental services, behavioral health care and care management and women, infant and children program services; and

     WHEREAS, First Choice serves everyone, regardless of ability to pay, and all of its health centers provide discounted patient fees through a sliding fee scale, have access to federal 340B contract pharmacy services and have established patient referral patterns to facilitate direct access to needed specialty care, emergency care and hospital inpatient services; and

     WHEREAS, First Choice employs over three hundred thirty individuals, seventy of whom are licensed providers of health care, including physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dental hygienists and behaviorists; and

     WHEREAS, in response to the need to increase access to primary care services in the mid-Rio Grande valley of central New Mexico, First Choice has doubled its capacity to serve over the last five years; and

     WHEREAS, in February 2008, the new forty-two-thousand-square-foot south valley health commons opened, replacing a thirty-five-year-old structure and allowing First Choice to triple its capacity to serve at this site; and

     WHEREAS, in December 2010, First Choice collaborated with the federal government, the state, Bernalillo county and the city of Albuquerque to remodel the vacant former state income support building, and the resulting fifteen-thousand-square-foot William street structure, which replaces an old five- thousand-square-foot structure, will allow First Choice to double its capacity to serve residents of that south Broadway neighborhood in Albuquerque; and

     WHEREAS, in October 2010, First Choice received an eight- million-one-hundred-thousand-dollar ($8,100,000) grant from the federal health resources and services administration to construct and equip a new health center in Valencia county, which will be completed by August 2012, will replace an aging four-thousand-five-hundred-square-foot structure in Los Lunas and will allow First Choice to triple its capacity to serve residents of Valencia county; and

     WHEREAS, in 2010, First Choice provided a medical care home to sixty thousand people who visited more than two hundred sixty-eight thousand times to receive care in a twelve-month period, which included medical, dental and women, infant and children program encounters; and

     WHEREAS, First Choice collaborates with the university of New Mexico hospital, the university of New Mexico health sciences center, the department of health, county and local governments, the federal government, other local service providers and the community to structure innovative models of care and service delivery that maximize the collective resources for the betterment of the communities served; and

     WHEREAS, First Choice has been recognized nationally as a leader and innovator in primary care health service delivery "model" development; and

     WHEREAS, in 2010, First Choice was named community health center of the year by the membership of the New Mexico primary care association;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the senate recognize the value and contributions to New Mexico provided by First Choice community healthcare, incorporated; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the chief executive officer of First Choice community healthcare, incorporated.

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