Group’s Lack of Hospital Stirs Recent Debate Over Indian Well being Service

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Group’s Lack of Hospital Stirs Recent Debate Over Indian Well being Service

The hospital is federally run by the Indian Well being Service, based mostly in Rockville, Md. The company was created to hold out the federal gove


The hospital is federally run by the Indian Well being Service, based mostly in Rockville, Md. The company was created to hold out the federal government’s treaty obligations to offer well being care providers to eligible American Indians and Alaskan Natives.

Located 60 miles west of Albuquerque, the Acoma-Cañoncito-Laguna Service Unit serves about 126,000 sufferers a 12 months. Earlier than scaling again its providers, it had 25 inpatient beds and served round 9,100 tribal residents from the encircling tribes. The hospital has been in operation for the reason that mid-1970s and offered inpatient and outpatient care, together with dental, optometry, pharmaceutical and medical emergency providers.

Coronavirus circumstances for the Acoma Pueblo, which has about 3,000 residents, have spiked not too long ago, together with 100 in early November after zero reported circumstances in September.

The workplace within the Albuquerque space is certainly one of I.H.S.’s 12 service areas and serves 20 Pueblos, two Apache bands, three Navajo chapters and two Ute tribes throughout 4 southwest states. There are 5 hospitals, 11 well being facilities and 12 subject clinics serving the residents of the world.

Wendy Sarracino, 57, a neighborhood well being consultant for the Acoma folks, stated that when her son broke his leg, she needed to cease at two hospital earlier than he might obtain the care he wanted. On the time of his damage, the Acoma-Cañoncito-Laguna service unit hospital had already closed for the day so Ms. Sarracino drove her son 45 minutes to Grants.

However after the hospital didn’t identified the a number of fractures in her son’s legs, Ms. Sarracino drove him one other hour to Albuquerque. The hospital in Grants discovered solely a single fracture in her son’s leg, however on the hospital in Albuquerque, an X-ray discovered a number of fractures in each legs.

“That was form of our lifeline,” Ms. Sarracino stated of the hospital. “We didn’t need to go very far for well being care. An consciousness must be made that folks do dwell in rural New Mexico and we want well being care.”



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