Alamogordo hospital to join Christus Health pending final agreement
May 9—Alamogordo-based Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center will join Christus Health, pending a final agreement signed between the two health care companies this summer, they announced in a joint news release on Friday.
Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center signed a non-binding letter of intent to join Christus Health, based in Irving, Texas, following an 18-month planning process, Gerald Champion CEO Jim Heckert said.
Lillie Lewis, a spokeswoman with Gerald Champion, told the Journal the move to join Christus Health "gives us additional support to increase services in the community." She added that joining a larger health system puts the medical center in a stronger economic position for the future.
Gerald Champion is an independent, nonprofit Level III trauma hospital based in Alamogordo, though it serves a larger slice of South Central New Mexico, with its 160 providers and 1,000 staff.
The medical center, according to the news release, provides 28 specialty care and primary clinics, more than 30 medical and surgical specialties, service lines to include urgent care, wound care, cardiac cath lab and interventional radiology, as well as a 98-bed acute care facility.
Christus Health is spread across Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. It also has operations in Mexico, Chile and Colombia. In New Mexico, the health system operates Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe.
