Access to Care

UNM Health System Celebrates New Gallup Multi-Specialty Care Clinic with Ribbon Cutting

Too many New Mexico residents face an hours-long drive when they need to see medical specialists, but residents in the northwestern quadrant of the state will soon have greater access to care.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, August 4, The University of New Mexico Health System will host a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the opening of its new Gallup Multispecialty Clinic.

“UNM is very proud to bring specialty care closer to home for patients in Gallup and throughout northwest New Mexico,” said Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH, executive vice president for UNM Health Sciences and chief executive officer of the UNM Health System.

The 2,300-square-foot clinic, located in Suite 3 at 205 Nizhoni Blvd. in Gallup, will provide services to adult and pediatric patients from throughout the Four Corners area, including tribal members and Indian Health Service patients.

“Our mission is to expand clinics and telemedicine throughout the state to positively impact populations that need it the most,” Ziedonis said. “We plan to continue to expand these services to meet New Mexico’s needs.”

Clinical services will include urogynecology, gynecological oncology, dermatology, high-risk pregnancy care and vascular care, as well as several pediatric specialties, including pediatric cardiology and orthopedics, said Kathryn Hellberg, UNM Hospital’s director of Women’s Ultrasound, Maternal Fetal Medicine and Women’s Outreach.

Additional adult and pediatric specialists are scheduled to join the clinic later this year, she said.

Although UNM has a long history of community outreach, the Gallup clinic is UNM’s first multi-specialty clinic sited outside the Albuquerque metropolitan area, Hellberg said.

“This great community partnership will improve care for all New Mexico,” said Michael E. Richards, MD, MPA, executive vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the UNM Health Sciences Center and professor of Emergency Medicine in the UNM School of Medicine.

“Before the clinic opening, many of these services were not currently available or were in limited supply in the Gallup area, and our patients faced a 2 ½-hour drive to travel to Albuquerque for care,” he said.