Some questions the Taos News might ask Holy Cross

Every day, Taos hears the whirr of helicopter flights to and from Holy Cross Medical Center. I’ve been told that these flights are not for specialty cases, but because Holy Cross no longer has the capacity to serve many of the medical needs of our residents and visitors. And, that many of the emergency room visits this past winter were from out-of-town skiers with broken bones and other injuries. My understanding is that because New Mexico’s hospitals are currently at or beyond their capacity, Holy Cross patients are often airlifted out of state at an exorbitant cost.

If this is true, how is it sustainable?

I know the town, county and Holy Cross have all been working hard to meet the medical needs of our community. Thank you. Our political representatives have also worked hard on legislation to support the hospital, which the Taos News has recently reported on. Thank you on both counts.

I wonder, though, what more we should collectively be considering to make sure that the current and future medical needs of Taos residents and visitors can be met without bankrupting families with hefty medical bills from helicopter airlifts.

As the only newspaper serving all of Taos County, I ask the Taos News to please provide in-depth, investigative reporting into the current situation at Holy Cross.

Please let us know the following: The number of beds — both in the hospital and in the emergency room; The number of patients seeking care who need a hospital bed or emergency room bed; The number of patients airlifted to other hospitals, for what reason, and associated cost per ride; The number of annual patients who are Taos County residents; The number of annual patients who are Taos County visitors; The number of injured skiers seen at Holy Cross this winter; The number of days per year that Holy Cross is over capacity.

Please also report on the relationship between Holy Cross, Taos Ski Valley Inc., and Taos Air. How, and in what capacity, do Taos Ski Valley Inc. and Taos Air contribute revenue to Holy Cross Medical Center’s annual budget? What are their longterm plans for supporting the hospital in meeting the medical needs of the ski valley’s clients? How does it serve them to have Chris Stagg, a TSV Inc. vice president, on Holy Cross Medical Center’s board of directors? Taos Ski Valley Inc. and Taos Air are both privately owned entities. They continue to ask the town and county to partner with them so they can access public monies to fund their growth and upgrades. For these reasons, we taxpayers deserve to have these questions answered.

Finally, please interview the hospital’s emergency room staff to find out how many patients they see every day, the types of cases they are dealing with, and how they are being affected by the current workload. They have a unique perspective that is important for all of us to hear.