LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: A call for higher standards in New Mexico's senior care
When skilled nursing care fails, it does so quietly, behind closed doors, away from public view, and at the immense cost of our state鈥檚 most vulnerable seniors and disabled residents.
For years, New Mexico, and particularly northern New Mexico, has suffered from an endemic shortage of quality skilled nursing care options. The underlying cause is no mystery: a vicious cycle of low wages, severe understaffing and high turnover rates created by systemic neglect. When facilities operate on razor-thin staffing budgets, the environment becomes untenable for caregivers and dangerous for residents. Care deteriorates 鈥� sometimes with catastrophic, life-altering consequences for the families involved.
Too often, this crisis is exacerbated by distant, private-equity-backed or corporate chains that view long-term care purely through the lens of profit margins. These companies are reporting record profits in the millions. And millions more of tax dollars flow out of New Mexico each year via Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, alongside the hard-earned life savings of local families.
Yet, instead of reinvesting those revenues back into the local community by paying fair, competitive wages to nurses and aides, maintaining safe nurse-to-patient ratios or upgrading facilities, far too many out-of-state entities siphon profits to shareholders. They strip facilities of the foundational resources needed to deliver dignified, adequate care, leaving frontline staff overworked, under-supported and burning out at alarming rates.
With Anchorum Health Foundation鈥檚 recent announcement to build a new skilled nursing facility in Santa Fe, New Mexico stands at a pivotal crossroads. Rooted in northern New Mexico, Anchorum Health Foundation was founded in 2008 as a 50% owner in Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. In 2023, it sold its share in the health system for a multiyear financial agreement.
On its website, Anchorum Health Foundation states 鈥渨e are shifting from a healthcare partnership to a community partnership, aiming to improve the social conditions affecting the health of northern New Mexico鈥檚 people and communities.鈥� That said, building a new facility is only the first step; the true measure of success will lie in how it operates on a daily basis. To break the pattern that has plagued our region for decades, legislators and health organizations must commit to standard-setting priorities:
Fair compensation: paying living, competitive wages to recruit and retain compassionate, qualified healthcare professionals locally.
Safe staffing levels: ensuring staff-to-resident ratios prioritize safety, attentiveness and meaningful interaction over cost-cutting.
Reinvestment in care: directing operational resources back into patient programs, proper medical equipment and staff training rather than administrative extraction.
Community accountability: maintaining transparency with local families and state regulators to foster genuine trust.
New Mexicans who spent their lives building our communities deserve to age with dignity, comfort and safety in their home state. Anchorum Health Foundation鈥檚 commitment offers a chance to raise the bar for skilled nursing care across the region. We hope Anchorum Health Foundation will lead by example 鈥� putting patient health and well-being firmly before profits and establishing a standard of care that northern New Mexico can finally rely on.
Jennifer J. Foote is a partner at Harvey, Foote & Baker.
