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We've used Pres. emergency in Rio Rancho several times. We've never had to wait too long, although all hospitals prioritize...obviously, someone coming in with a gushing head wound would be seen by a doctor before someone with flu symptoms.
One thing I have noticed in this area is a huge number of people who utilize the ER as if it were a doctor's office...perhaps it's lack of insurance?
It's not lack of insurance so much as lack of other options. Many of the people clogging up the E.R. are people with insurance.
I believe in Albuquerque it's primarily a doctor shortage. Want to make an appointment with your primary care? Two weeks is about the average. Want to follow up? Two more weeks. Can't blame people for going to the urgent care or ER with a life-pausing but not life-threatening condition.
We have fewer doctors than we need because:
*Our government paid medical schools money to not train as many doctors as they could a few years ago.
*We don't actively recruit foreign doctors and nurses. Dr. Gupta or Dr. Li may not be my first choice, but they beat the heck out of waiting 2 weeks.
*Our doctors don't treat in the same way they do in foreign countries. They focus so intently on curing the few patients they do see by ordering expensive tests that they end up pushing additional health care product onto the patients than they need or benefit from. This, in turn, stretches them further.
Video of introducing new Presbyterian Medical Center in Rio Rancho
I think this video is very well done. They got the whole community involved in doing this video including the mayor and the high schools cheerleaders. Lots of other people ages young and old. Check it out. Looks like it's going to be a great hospital when it's finished.
Here's the link. You do not have to have a facebook page to view the video.
RE "low doctors per capita" - pay heed to this warning.
We have found the shortage of doctors (primary care) in Albuquerque to be a real problem, one that we did not anticipate before moving here. We moved to ABQ last summer, and started the search for doctors in September. You don't "choose" a doctor here - you contact one of the large systems central scheduling (Presbyterian, UNM, etc) and you take whatever they offer you, or not. It is a potluck process.
The first doctor I was offered, for a December appointment, supposedly took our insurance, but she did not show up on the insurance website, nor could I confirm it by phone call, so I had to cancel the appointment. I took the first available appointment I could get with a PA, to fill some critical prescriptions, and he was a quack. The 3rd doctor I got an appointment for - it would have been today - evidently retired or moved on since I was given the appointment 2 months ago, because 2 weeks ago I was notified that he was no longer at the practice. They offered me another doctor in the same building, for the end of this month - she is not an internist as I wanted, but family practice - but the real problem is that she has the worst ratings on doctor rating websites I have ever seen, and which probably explains why she had open slots on her appointment calendar.
So I have been trying, unsuccessfully, since September to start a relationship with an internist, or at least an MD. I am at a loss for what to do, short of keeping this appointment and deciding for myself if the latest doctor is as bad as her ratings suggest. It may be another "prescription refill" stop for me, and then I will start the search for another doctor.
Someone mentioned El Paso, and questioned how there could be a lack of medical care with "hospitals and clinics all over the place." The same could be questioned about ABQ - there are hospitals and medical office buildings galore, but beware...there is no room at the inn for newcomers.
This isn't just a problem for newcomers - I have talked to neighbors, some who have lived here for a long time, and they encounter the same problems finding doctors. One neighbor needed a pacemaker and gave up - she could not find a cardiologist in ABQ - flew to Dallas where one of her children lives, and had the work done there.
One neighbor needed a pacemaker and gave up - she could not find a cardiologist in ABQ - flew to Dallas where one of her children lives, and had the work done there.
We have cardiologist's in ABQ, perhaps not enough, but we have them, I have seen several over the past 15 years in the ABQ area. I have had heart surgery within the past two years performed in the new Rust medical center in Rio Rancho, about 7 miles from my home. Better than the one cardiologist I was scheduled for 14 years ago which was 230+ miles away.
My wife has had several surgeries in New Mexico (ABQ area), three that I recall in the past 10 years.
No one in these forums has been hiding the lack of enough medical care in New Mexico... It's really up to the individual to take care of those issues.
One tip. Once you have established and completed an appointment, getting back to see that doctor will normally be much faster in the future...
No one in these forums has been hiding the lack of enough medical care in New Mexico... It's really up to the individual to take care of those issues.
Maybe so, but you consistently counter my anecdotes with yours, suggesting that I am exaggerating the problem. I am a very resourceful person, yet I can't conjure up doctors with open appointment schedules - what are you suggesting that I and others are doing wrong when you say it is really up to the individual to take care of those issues? How? The doctor shortage in ABQ is all too real, and I would warn anyone considering Las Cruces or any NM city as a place to live to really dig into the issue before calling Mayflower, assuming access to doctors is important to them. For most retirees, it is very important.
And you live in/near Rio Rancho, which may be better for finding doctors than where I live in a central ABQ neighborhood, ironically in the shadows of UNM Hospital where doctors are very hard to obtain appointments with.
Part of the New Mexico economic problems and the related "brain drain" is the loss of doctors who are trained right here at UNM, plus the concomitant problem of attracting physicians from other states who would dare relocate here. Add in the crime issues, and the poor schools, and getting a physician to move to NM is a non-starter for many, especially those with young families, or even where there are no children, the lack of jobs and economic opportunity for the physician's spouse who tends to be highly educated, too.
I have some personal insight into this: my daughter is a resident physician in training at UNM hospital, and she is already looking forward to the day she finishes residency so that she can move somewhere else. Her discussions with her peers, including people who are originally from NM and returned "home" to do their residency, show the widespread sentiment that while this is a great place with a low cost of living to complete training on a paltry resident's salary, most plan to leave ABQ and NM when they complete training. I have no idea if there is a solution to this brain drain other than a complete revitalization of the state and local economies, but it is a real problem that affects people who live here.
The next place I live, the #1 factor for me will be the availability of doctors. That will trump climate and cost of living, the usual #1 factors that retirees cite and what leads many to consider NM as a place to live.
Last edited by Westbound and Down; 03-10-2015 at 11:34 AM..
RE "low doctors per capita" - pay heed to this warning.
We have found the shortage of doctors (primary care) in Albuquerque to be a real problem, one that we did not anticipate before moving here. We moved to ABQ last summer, and started the search for doctors in September. You don't "choose" a doctor here - you contact one of the large systems central scheduling (Presbyterian, UNM, etc) and you take whatever they offer you, or not. It is a potluck process.
The first doctor I was offered, for a December appointment, supposedly took our insurance, but she did not show up on the insurance website, nor could I confirm it by phone call, so I had to cancel the appointment. I took the first available appointment I could get with a PA, to fill some critical prescriptions, and he was a quack. The 3rd doctor I got an appointment for - it would have been today - evidently retired or moved on since I was given the appointment 2 months ago, because 2 weeks ago I was notified that he was no longer at the practice. They offered me another doctor in the same building, for the end of this month - she is not an internist as I wanted, but family practice - but the real problem is that she has the worst ratings on doctor rating websites I have ever seen, and which probably explains why she had open slots on her appointment calendar.
So I have been trying, unsuccessfully, since September to start a relationship with an internist, or at least an MD. I am at a loss for what to do, short of keeping this appointment and deciding for myself if the latest doctor is as bad as her ratings suggest. It may be another "prescription refill" stop for me, and then I will start the search for another doctor.
Someone mentioned El Paso, and questioned how there could be a lack of medical care with "hospitals and clinics all over the place." The same could be questioned about ABQ - there are hospitals and medical office buildings galore, but beware...there is no room at the inn for newcomers.
This isn't just a problem for newcomers - I have talked to neighbors, some who have lived here for a long time, and they encounter the same problems finding doctors. One neighbor needed a pacemaker and gave up - she could not find a cardiologist in ABQ - flew to Dallas where one of her children lives, and had the work done there.
My family and I have had no trouble getting a primary care doc in Albuquerque (Albuquerque Health Partners and Pediatrics After Hours). Though that was just pre-Obamacare so there may be more difficulty now with more people in the system. We also pay a little more for insurance with a large network (BCBS PPO). And to be fair, you had an appointment that you cancelled. Insurance agreements tend to be made with the provider group, not the individual doctor.
Albuquerque: 395
Phoenix: 242
Denver: 344
El Paso: 199
Dallas: 230
Tucson: 374
Seattle: 390
Las Cruces: 175
Santa Fe: 424
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Video of introducing new Presbyterian Medical Center in Rio Rancho
