Commissioners tour new hospital; completion by end of 2026

It’s beginning to look a lot more like a hospital.

The new Valencia County hospital — under construction at the northeast corner of Main Street and Sand Sage Road in the village of Los Lunas — is on track for completion by the end of the year, if not sooner.

At the March 4 Valencia County Commission meeting, Dennis Towne, president of Bradbury Stamm told commissioners the 40,000-square foot, single-story facility is now fully enclosed and interior finish work is underway. A helipad is being constructed as well and the village has almost completed an extension of Palmilla Road on the east side of the site.

Palmilla begins at Desert Willow Road, which runs north off Main Street, west of the Walmart Supercenter. It goes east, crossing Los Morros Road and running along the north side of the Maverik gas station. The extension will connect Palmilla to the hospital property.

“We are looking at July for completion, with specialized equipment coming in August, and then the Brazos team is talking about beginning operation,” Towne said.

Brazos is the joint venture between Texas-based Community Healthcare Corporation and Albuquerque’s Lovelace Health System the county contracted with to operate the hospital.

When asked about delays or problems he may need the county’s help with, Towne said at this point in the design-build project it was just a matter of continued coordination with the designer — FBT Architects — and the operator.

“It’s been a very smooth project up to this point,” Towne said. “There are no budget issues; it’s holding where it is.”

During his introduction of the hospital’s new CEO, Lovelace Health System president and CEO Cliff Wilson said the company was looking forward to expanding care for Valencia County.

“We are looking forward to working with Tammie (Hulett) and her team, and moving the project forward,” Wilson said.

Tammie Hulett, the chief executive officer for the Valencia County hospital, has ties to Valencia County and called her new position “coming back home. I am really excited about that.”

Growing up in the Los Lunas area, Hulett told the commissioners she still has family in Valencia County — in Los Lunas, Los Chavez and Tomé. She has been in healthcare for more than 40 years, starting at UNM “a long, long time ago. I have a degree in business, but I am also a paralegal and a nurse. Healthcare quality and safe service are right up my alley.”

Hulett sits on the board of the New Mexico Hospital Association and is preparing to step down from the Rural Healthcare Network for Rural Hospitals. A couple of years ago, she spent nearly an entire legislative session working with state Sen. George Munoz advocating for hospitals providing health care in the frontier areas of the state.

“Every one of those hospitals is still standing,” she said. “I am grateful for that partnership that helped create access to care. It’s very important everywhere have access to care. This hospital will allow citizens to receive care right here ... in Valencia County.”

As CEO, Hulett is working on making sure the hospital’s electronic medical records system is set up, as well as taking part in discussions to assess what shared services and specialties can be brought to Valencia County.

“There are a lot of discussions we are moving forward,” Hulett said. “There is the potential for a medical office building (on the hospital site) and shared services to go in there. As you know, this is an 11-bed inpatient unit with a full-service emergency room, labs, full-service radiology, two operating rooms and two endoscopy suites.”

Calling the emergency room “amazing,” the CEO said there would be space for women’s specialty treatment, behavioral health as well as a room for trauma patients to be stabilized before being sent to a higher level care facility. The helipad is located immediately outside the trauma room.

Hulett said they are currently working through contractual agreements for specialty providers, such as ER, radiology, anesthesia and hospitalists.

“We want to make sure we get a good quality company coming in to take care of patients. We estimate we’ll have a staff of about 100. We’re hoping to have a lot of jobs open up,” she said.

Hulett has hired a purchasing and supply director, and they are advertising for a chief nursing officer and chief finance officer. She said the CNO position has gotten about 20 to 25 applicants while the CFO job has eight to 10 so far.

“We expect a lot of quality staff; it will be a hard decision to make,” she said. “My goal is to provide a full-service hospital and increase access to Valencia County with quality, safe care.”

Commissioner Joseph Bizzell asked whether Hulett and her team would be negotiating with insurance carriers for the facility. Hulett said they were negotiating contracts with Medicare and Medicaid first, followed by other commercial carriers.

“We want to contract with all (insurance) companies that allow us to, especially those that have employees here in Valencia County,” she added.

Commissioner Dante Berry asked if the operator would be able to offer competitive pay for the medical professionals at the hospital, similar to Albuquerque, and how many medical professionals Hulett anticipated to be employed.

Hulett said she didn’t have the exact number of providers for each department, explaining that would vary.

“The OR (operating room) will depend on the specialties. The number of surgeons will dictate the number of anesthesiologists, for instance. We’re still working through those areas,” she said.

The emergency room would probably be busy day one, she continued.

“With the companies we are looking at for the ER, we are telling them it’s going to be busy, to plan for flex coverage for busier times, probably between midnight and 2 a.m., for extra coverage,” she said.

Last Friday, March 6, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham used the soon-to-be completed hospital as a backdrop to sign a batch of health care centered legislation passed in the 2026 session.

“This legislation demonstrates what bipartisan support can do,” Lujan Grisham said of the bills.

Before the signings, the governor touched on the history of the hospital remembering when former state senator Michael Sanchez — who was at the bill signing — began advocating for the project nearly 20 years ago.

“The cabinet secretary for the (New Mexico) Department of Health told him ‘Your population can’t sustain a hospital,’” she recalled. “That was me. I was not liked down here for that. This is the fastest growing county in New Mexico. Senator, as usual, you were right.”

The governor continued, saying it was her hope the new legislation would help recruit and retain medical providers for the Valencia County hospital, and noting there is a statewide shortage of about 5,000 doctors and 7,000 to 9,000 nurses.

The bills signed by Lujan Grisham included HB 99, the medical malpractice reform bill, which creates tiered caps on punitive damages and raises the evidentiary standard to from a preponderance of evidence to “clear and convincing,” requiring judicial review before punitive damage claims can proceed; HB 4 which increases revenue to the Health Care Affordability Fund, ensuring coverage stays affordable for working families and small businesses statewide; HB 306 that prohibits hospitals and health systems from charging facility fees directly to patients for preventive outpatient care, outpatient vaccinations and telehealth services, curbing surprise charges for routine care, and SB 101 which repeals the sunset clause in the Health Care Delivery and Access Act, ensuring continued financial support for eligible hospitals that care for Medicaid members.

The state has committed $50 million to the Valencia County hospital, including $11.5 million in capital outlay funding — $8.5 million in 2025 and $3 million in 2026.