UNM Hospital is the major teaching hospital. It is located on the campus and is administered by the University of New Mexico. Patient care is performed by the house staff under supervision by medical school faculty. The 421 bed hospital is the major primary care resource for a large number of Bernalillo County residents and is a referral center for the state and surrounding areas. In addition to the level I trauma center, it houses a regional burn center, a well-established limb re-implantation program, kidney and liver transplant service, and the state's most advanced neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Outpatient services and faculty offices are housed in an Ambulatory Care Center completed in 1991. There are over 200,000 outpatient visits annually A six bed observation unit adjacent to the ED is under ED supervision. Patients can be kept for up to 24 hours for further therapeutic or diagnostic interventions. A dedicated nurse and technician staff the unit in addition to the ED physicians. This unit has 2 monitored beds for "soft" rule/out myocardial infarction patients. Cardiology evaluates these patients each morning and they undergo cardiac stress tests or catherization as required. 2,000 patients yearly are admitted to the observation unit. Special beds in the ED include: two trauma, one medical resuscitation, two suture, four Ob/Gyn, one orthopedic, eleven continuous cardiac monitoring, and one ENT. There are 12 general beds for a total of 39 beds. Technicians assist with the suturing and wound care as needed in order to enhance patient flow. Respiratory therapists are stationed in the ED. Two dedicated ultrasound machines are in the ED and formal ultrasounds through radiology are available 7:30-24:00 and on a stat basis at other times. Two CAT scanners and a mid-field MRI are available on a 24 hour basis. A break room with sink, coffee maker, refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher is within the ED.

The Emergency Department: Patients desiring either emergency or urgent care go through centralized triage. Approximately 50,000 patients are triaged to the Emergency Department, and 17,000 are triaged to the Emergency Department East.. Other non-acute patients are triaged to local community health centers and to other university clinics such as medicine and pediatrics. The ED is a county hospital, university hospital, regional referral center, and the ED for the Indian Health Service Hospital next door, so the patient population is quite mixed. It is the only level I trauma center in the state and serves as the trauma center for southern Colorado, eastern Arizona, the Navajo Nation and pueblos as well. It is an integrated emergency department, meaning that patients of all specialties are the responsibility of the ED attending and are available for evaluation by residents rotating in the ED. 16% of ED patients are admitted to the hospital or observation unit. Pediatrics makes up 13% of ED visits, exclusive of the Pediatric ED (see below).

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