ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Construction is well underway on what should be the state’s most advanced hospital building, and now, we’re getting a first look inside what the University of New Mexico Hospital (UNMH) calls the “Critical Care Tower.”
Nearly ten years in the making, UNM Hospital is getting closer to finishing one of the biggest construction projects in state history with nine floors. The Critical Care Tower is a massive 700-million-dollar project, where the hospital plans to move its Adult Emergency Department and ICU.
“It is a contemporary ultra-modern facility. It really is a 21st century medical facility, and you know our current hospital has been an amazing asset for New Mexico, but many parts of it were built in the 1950s,” said UNMH Campus Development Communication Manager Makenzie McNeill.
Up on the roof is a second helipad for UNMH that will finally allow multiple helicopters to land at the facility at once. The top two floors of the building won’t be used when the building opens but will eventually allow for 96 additional hospital beds. Levels five and six will be home to the new intensive care units with around 100 beds.
“Having this larger and more expanded ICU we’ll be able to – it’ll help us be able to take more of those patients that need the higher level of care,” explained Makenzie McNeill.
One of the biggest changes is here in the operating room where they have stainless steel panels from floor to ceiling that have a lot of benefits. It includes a roughly 50% reduction in the bacteria found on typical operating room walls.
“Superior infection control, reduced maintenance time, incredible durability and flexibility,” stated McNeill.
The building will also feature new spaces for both families and workers, who will get the whole fourth floor for meeting and rest space away from patients. They’re also adding more windows through the new building, and they hope it’ll help with the roughly 7,000 critically ill or injured patients that go to UNMH each year.
“Many of those patients begin their care right here in the emergency department, so it’s really crucial that we have more space and more capacity to care for the patients that need the level one trauma care that we provide,” said McNeill.
In total, UNMH claimed the hospital will have around 196 beds across the entire facility and around 1,700 people will work here. They’re looking to hire 700 of those positions, and the building should be finished sometime next spring. After construction wraps, the hospital said it will start to move equipment over. So far, there’s no set date on when patients will start receiving treatment inside the building.
