SENATE MEMORIAL 39

54th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2019

INTRODUCED BY

Pete Campos

A MEMORIAL

ENCOURAGING REGIONAL COLLABORATION FOR PROVIDING EXCEPTIONAL MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH SERVICES AT ALL LEVELS OF CARE.

     WHEREAS, New Mexico faces significant challenges in access to health care due to its large rural and frontier areas, with thirty-four percent of the state's two million one hundred thousand residents living in rural or frontier counties; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico's geographically sparse and aging population puts pressure on its health care system, and the racial and ethnic diversity of the state compared to the United States poses challenges in providing culturally sensitive health care; and

     WHEREAS, there is limited access to health care in New Mexico, which is related to primary care provider shortages and lack of awareness of insurance availability, according to The State of Health in New Mexico 2018, issued by the department of health in April 2018; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico is experiencing a shortage in primary care and family practice providers; and

     WHEREAS, as New Mexico goes through a significant transition in providing health care services, the following need to be considered:

          A. coordination of rural health care services, school-based health clinics and private and public sector hospitals;

          B. the need for health care providers in larger communities such as Raton, Clayton and Las Vegas to collaborate with the many small communities surrounding them;

          C. coordination and collaboration among health care providers to include inpatient and outpatient strategies that are consistent and well coordinated;

          D. transportation needs of patients in rural areas to access health care;

          E. the feasibility of telemedicine and educational outreach for the more rural health care facilities; and

          F. other related and important components of health care delivery to improve the quality of care, effectiveness, confidence in medical services and minimization of duplication of efforts; and

     WHEREAS, faced with the challenges of a shortage of doctors, nurses and other health care providers, it is important that the department of health and state health providers continue to communicate with each other to ensure proactive preventive health care to keep the populations in communities of all sizes as healthy as possible; and

     WHEREAS, increased cooperation among health care providers will provide the ability to serve patients at all levels of needed care, from preventive to terminal, with a goal of providing quality health care at every level;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that regional mental and physical health service providers be encouraged to collaborate to provide exceptional service at all levels of care; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of health and the president of the New Mexico hospital association for distribution.

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