Presbyterian Medical Services to build large south-side health center
Jul. 27—Presbyterian squared.
Presbyterian Medical Services, which mostly provides behavioral health services in Santa Fe, is building a 47,000-square-foot community health center on the campus of Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center.
Though they share a name, Presbyterian Medical Services and Presbyterian Healthcare Services, which operates the hospital, are separate companies.
The new building at Beckner and Rail Runner roads will be the largest of Presbyterian Medical Services' 90 facilities in New Mexico, spokeswoman Suzanne Donati said.
Presbyterian Medical Services will relocate and combine its Santa Fe Community Guidance Center and Santa Fe Family Wellness Center at the new community health center. Presbyterian Medical Services also operates the Hopewell Family Health Center, which opened in early June, Donati said.
"There was always a desire for us to have all our services in one building," Donati said.
The Guidance Center provides behavioral health services for adults, while the Wellness Center serves young people up to age 18. Both have small primary health areas.
The new center will have a more prominent primary health component, with about 10 exam rooms, but each behavioral health wing will be larger, Donati said.
"Behavioral health is typically a cyclical, generational thing," Donati said. "It runs in the family. You have parents that need treatment and kids that need treatment."
Those families now have to shuttle between the Guidance and Wellness centers. With the new center, families will have a one-stop shop for behavioral health, primary health as well as dental care.
Presbyterian Medical Services currently offers no dental services in Santa Fe, but the new center will have seven dental bays, Donati said.
Presbyterian Medical Services has operated the Santa Fe Community Guidance Center since 1989 and took over another behavioral health center and rechristened it Santa Fe Family Wellness Center in 2016.
Presbyterian Medical Services also has numerous head start centers in Santa Fe, as well as teen centers at Santa Fe and Capital high schools.
Donati said Presbyterian Medical and Presbyterian Healthcare have discussed this project for three years. It is the first addition to the Presbyterian Santa Fe Health Park since the hospital opened in 2018.
"Our vision is to create a health park surrounding Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center where the community can access a broad spectrum of healthcare services in one place," Jon Wade, CEO of Presbyterian Santa Fe Medical Center, said in a statement. "PMS shares that vision and commitment to bringing much-needed services to our Santa Fe community — we are excited to welcome them to our campus."
The project architect is Dekker Perich Sabatini, and the general contractor is Enterprise Builders, both of Albuquerque.
