LOS ALAMOS — Christus Health’s footprint in New Mexico is growing.
The Texas-based Catholic hospital firm — which has operated Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe for nearly two decades and took over full ownership in 2023 — has broken ground on a new hospital in Los Alamos.
The upcoming facility, offering emergency, surgical, diagnostic and specialty care at 401 Trinity Drive, is the latest in a series of New Mexico expansions for Christus Health. The nonprofit firm opened a new Multispecialty Care clinic in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights earlier this month.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
For the past three years, Christus also has operated Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, an acute care facility with about 100 beds.
The hope is to ensure patients can access Christus’ care as close to home as possible, said Lillian Montoya, president and CEO of the regional healthcare system Christus St. Vincent and senior vice president of Christus Health New Mexico.
When Christus officials reviewed patient ZIP codes, they found many of their patients were coming to Santa Fe for care, despite living in Albuquerque or Los Alamos, Montoya said.
Christus has operated a clinic in Los Alamos for about a decade, she noted. “We’re expanding that footprint because we know that there are patients in this community that have been traveling down the hill for a long time that would like to stay closer to home.”
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Montoya added, “That’s what we’re really going to focus on: Where is there a need for patient access to care?”
Christus Health’s expansion plans in Los Alamos began more than a year ago, when the hospital firm announced it had purchased an empty plot of land on Trinity Drive — situated between a Smith’s grocery store and a handful of apartment complexes — from the Knights of Columbus.
The Catholic fraternal organization was willing to sell the property to the hospital firm because of “a shared mission that’s based on Catholic faith,” Montoya said. She called the sale a “big moment” in expanding Christus’ footprint in the area, which offers relatively little available land.
Construction of the new facility is expected to take about 18 months, a time period Montoya said will serve as a “nice runway” to recruit providers and staff for the hospital.
Margaret O’Hara/The New Mexican
Once finished, the new facility will include an emergency department with seven treatment rooms, a trauma room and two triage rooms.
Manny Pacheco, emergency medical services division chief for the Los Alamos Fire Department, said local health officials are still in discussions to better understand the new hospital’s capacity. But a second emergency room in town — in addition to the one operated at Los Alamos Medical Center — could give patients more options for care.
“We’re excited,” Pacheco said. “We’re excited to have another option.”
The hospital will also have four inpatient beds, two operating rooms, an on-site laboratory and pharmacy, an endoscopy suite for gastrointestinal procedures, and comprehensive imaging technology — like CT scans, MRIs, X-rays and ultrasounds.
A six-chair infusion center will also be available in the facility, particularly for patients in need of cancer treatment.
“By bringing these services together under one roof, we are creating an integrated approach to care, one that’s designed around the patient and the needs of the community,” Christus St. Vincent Chief Operating Officer Hope Wade said Thursday during a hospital groundbreaking ceremony.
One thing you won’t find in Los Alamos’ new hospital, however, is labor and delivery services.
Los Alamos Medical Center earlier this year announced plans to shutter its labor and delivery services, sending patients instead to Presbyterian Española Hospital or Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. Christus’ new hospital in the Atomic City, however, is “too small of a hospital for that service line,” Montoya said.
Nathan Burton/The New Mexican
Dr. David Gonzales, chief medical officer for Christus St. Vincent, said the new hospital will open up a broader range of services for Los Alamos patients.
“When people need care — especially during an emergency or when facing a very serious illness — distance matters, and time matters,” he said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “Having access to trusted, high-quality care close to home can make a difference for patients and their families.”
The hospital’s new clinic in Albuquerque is intended to accomplish the same goal, albeit without an emergency department.
The clinic, at 7910 Wyoming Blvd. NE, Suite A, offers primary care as well as rotating specialty services in neurosurgery, surgical breast oncology, endocrinology, and liver, pancreas and gall bladder surgery. New specialties will be added in the fall.
Montoya said the success of Christus St. Vincent Regional Cancer Center — which opened in Santa Fe in July 2025 to a higher-than-expected volume of patients — gave the health system more confidence to try out the Albuquerque market.
Christus officials will be closely monitoring the Albuquerque clinic’s success, Montoya added, in addition to “exploring” whether other areas in Southern New Mexico lack adequate access to care.
“One step at a time: Master it, do well, and go to the next opportunity,” she said.
